Sumatra Kula

Several tiki histories mention that one of the first drinks served at Don the Beachcomber's in Los Angeles was a Sumatra Kula. (It cost 25¢.)

But I haven't found a recipe for it - it's not in Beachbum Berry's two books, or in the Don the Beachcomber book by Arnold Bitner and Phoebe Beach, or others.

Anyone know what was in it?

1/2oz lime juice
1/2oz grapefruit juice
1/2oz orange juice
1 1/2 oz light puerto rican rum ( or Cuban) Sshhh Bacardi :o
1/4oz honey melted with 1/4oz water
put in blender adding 3oz crushed ice
blend for five seconds
pour
drink

You musn't have "Sippin' Safari" then...that's where the recipe is.

As with all Beachcomber recipes, this one apparently went through several revisions over the years. Shown on one menu costing $1.20, it lists the following ingredients: "Mellow, Old Philippine Rum, native wild berry liqueur, and juice of a lime."

I'm curious as to what the wild berry liqueur was.

You can still order a Sumatra Kula that follows the vintage recipe at the Tiki-Ti in Hollywood, open since 1961.

And The Mai-Kai in Fort Lauderdale has had a version of the drink called the Malayan Mist on its menu since 1956.

For more of the history of this classic, click here:
http://www.slammie.com/atomicgrog/blog/2011/10/05/mai-kai-cocktail-review-a-malayan-mist-ery/

The Tiki Ti Sumatra Kula is a gorgeous bright green, and tastes great! I asked Mike Jr. a couple nights ago, and he said it was some secret Green Passion Fruit syrup. I don't think it's the Fee Bros, since that stuff has a not-so-subtle phony mint flavor; maybe it's the green fassionola. Or it could be some homemade stuff. Or he could be throwing a green red herring in my path.

Other than the green look the Tiki Ti version of the Sumatra Kula is similar in flavor to their other family of "Kula" drinks: QB Kula, Planters Kula, Barbados Kula. Probably the same base of juices and sweeteners with a variance in the rum selection. An ambitious Tiki Ti regular could probably backwards engineer them all using the known recipes that are out there and tweaking appropriately

That was interesting, i`d love to know what that green (?) passionfruit syrup is...how can a passion fruit syrup be green btw? normal passion fruit color is orange...sounds delicious tho! and i like green drinks...

Also, does anyone know what the "kula" means or where it comes from?

On 2014-03-30 14:57, Quince_at_Dannys wrote:
The Tiki Ti Sumatra Kula is a gorgeous bright green, and tastes great! I asked Mike Jr. a couple nights ago, and he said it was some secret Green Passion Fruit syrup. I don't think it's the Fee Bros, since that stuff has a not-so-subtle phony mint flavor; maybe it's the green fassionola. Or it could be some homemade stuff. Or he could be throwing a green red herring in my path.

Other than the green look the Tiki Ti version of the Sumatra Kula is similar in flavor to their other family of "Kula" drinks: QB Kula, Planters Kula, Barbados Kula. Probably the same base of juices and sweeteners with a variance in the rum selection. An ambitious Tiki Ti regular could probably backwards engineer them all using the known recipes that are out there and tweaking appropriately

'

I ordered a Sumatra Kula from Greg last night and managed to glean a little bit of information about the drink (I was three drinks in already at the time so this might be a little fuzzy). It seems that the drink contains both "green passionfruit" and "red passionfruit". Greg apparently put a little too much of the red in when he made the drink, which resulted in it having a grayish color rather than the usual vibrant green. He had Mike taste it, and he seemed to confirm that it had the about the right flavor, just the wrong color. When Greg rectified the mistake and brought a new, bright-green Kula over, I asked him if it was green fassionola that gave the drink its color, and he said yes. There's still something else in there that's distinct but hard for me to identify; maybe the Tiki Ti's "green fassionola" is homemade and incorporates something besides the passionfruit that is apparently its base?