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Tiki Central / Tiki Drinks and Food

Trader Vic's original cocktails

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T

I need a bit of help from you TCers out there.
We're putting together a drink menu for next week's Tiki Tuesday at Pacifica Aspen. Each week a different person's cocktails are highlighted. Next week it'll be Trader Vic. Does anybody have any input on quintessential drinks that are his? Why do you think it should be included? We'll definitely do the Mai Tai (for comparison to Don Beach) and the Fogg Cutter. We need 2-3 more. Other ideas include the Scorpion and/ or the Babalu.
Thanks!

[ Edited by: TikiTie 2013-06-26 15:04 ]

navy grog.

I've always liked the Eastern Sour

Tiki Puka Puka and Molokai Mike. The second drink has not been that great when I have had it at Teader Vic's, but when I blend it up at home according to the TV Tiki Party recipe it is very good.

I love the Kama'Aina

J

There are many great Trader Vic's drinks that we could include, but I would say the ICONIC ones are:

1- Mai-Tai
2- Scorpion
3- (Samoan) Fog(g) Cutter
4- Navy Grog (also good to compare w. Don the Beachcomber's)

Other possibilities include:

5- Rum Pot
6- Honi-Honi
7- Shingle Stain

KEEP IN MIND that the variation in rum blends possible with the Mai-Tai gives you infinite variations. Appleton 12 Y.O. and/or Chairman's Reserve and/or Bacardi 8 and/or Doorly's XO and/or El Dorado 12 and/or Dos Maderas 5+5 and/or...


-J.

[ Edited by: jokeiii 2013-06-27 07:08 ]

HT

Zaya and/or Ron Zacapa and/or Smith & Cross and/or Flora de Cana and/or Plantation and/or...

Isn't the Navy Grog Don's?

Appleton Extra and/or Rhum St. James Hors D'age and/or Smith and Cross and/or Rhum Clement and or...

Thirsty now.

The "Old School" Trader Vic's drink menus have roughly 45 "Strong" drinks in addition to fifteen to twenty smaller cocktail and after dinner drinks. Here is the strong drink section of my dear departed Palo Alto Trader Vic's drink menu. Beverly Hills has a similar menu with a few differences.

I've made my rounds of all the strong drinks numerous times and kept a list of my favorites. The recipes for nearly all of them are in Trader Vic's 1972 Bartender's Guide which you can still purchase used on Amazon. I highly recommend it if you are serious about hosting a Trader Vic's theme night.

Among my favorites (in no particular order) are Mai Tai/Honi Honi, Trader Vic's Grog, Queens Park Swizzle, Raffles Bar Gin Sling, Tortuga, Siboney, Port Light, Eastern Sour, Maui Fizz, Moku Nani, (Flaming) Coffee Grog, Tiki Puka Puka and the Navy Grog. The rest are good to very good except I don't recommend the Honolulu or the Molokai Mike, two slushy drinks. I've also made the Molokai Mike at home to give it a second chance but it just doesn't work for me, maybe because I don't like slushy drinks in general.

The (Flaming) Coffee Grog is served in the Headhunter's Mug with a float of flaming Grand Marnier spooned on top at the table side. The Tiki Puka Puka and Navy Grog are difficult to duplicate without the restaurant Grog Concentrate which is nearly impossible to get. Check out the Grog Concentrate thread in this forum for more information.

If you're going to make a communal drink I recommend the Tiki Bowl instead of the Scorpion Bowl. The Scorpion Bowl is famous but the Tiki Bowl is much better. By the way, as far as I know Trader Vic invented the concept of serving exotic/tiki cocktails in communal drinking vessels. Does anyone have contradictory evidence?

[ Edited by: TropicDrinkBoy 2013-06-27 12:11 ]

T

Thanks for all of the input! Here is the menu that we came up with. The night was a big success.

[ Edited by: TikiTie 2013-07-04 15:10 ]

[ Edited by: TikiTie 2013-07-04 15:10 ]

Glad everything turned out so well. I could nitpick about a few of the details (what would Tiki Central be without nit-picking?) but as I continued to read the bio my eyes teared up and well, I can see you truly appreciate the contributions of the Trader. Wonderful write-up and choice of drinks.

Besides Donn Beach, Trader Vic and Steve Crane, who else do you plan to feature, Mariano Licudine of the Mai Kai?

T

It looks like it'll be Trader Vic for the rest of this month. August will probably highlight Ray Buhen.
Thanks everybody for the interest and the suggestions!

Pages: 1 12 replies