A Tiki Bar created by an un-handyman

I got a wild hair last summer and decided to Tiki-fy our basement bar. I did this despite the fact that I'm the opposite of handy. I didn't want to spend a ton of dough on it, so I kept things fairly modest. Most of my bar money is tied up in liquid assets, if you know what I mean.

It turned out better than I expected. Our friends really seem to enjoy it when they come over. We don't go down there very often, which makes me wonder sometimes, "What the hell was I thinking?" But then I have a Mai Tai and stop wondering that. :)

I forgot to take a reverse shot, but this gives you the basic idea. The focus is on the booze, with over 130 different rums and about the same number of whiskies.

Holy crap, that's one hell of a well stocked bar.
What do you mean you don't go down there much?
Put your bed in the corner and bammm...problem solved :)
Looks like a great place to kick your feet up, pick a rum (if u can choose 1),
Turn on Hawaii 5-0 or Gilligan's island reruns and chill!
:)
Good job

How about a list of those rums?!?

Jon

On 2013-06-30 10:02, hang10tiki wrote:
Holy crap, that's one hell of a well stocked bar.

GROG 2nd that!!

Wow...that is some stash you have there...it makes up for the sparse decor, but it looks great to me. Throw a couple of Tikis in the corner and some Marten Denny on the Hi-Fi and get to drinking!!! You must be a talented mixologist...what are your specialties?

Thanks. I'd love to have a few big Tikis to put around. Maybe I'll splurge and get some. I don't buy any new booze, so that's a savings, right? :)

When we have people over, I'll mix the standards (mostly non-Tiki), along with new things that I want to try out. I mix different Tiki drinks for my wife and I. Nothing too exotic -- Mai Tai, Planter's Punch, Scorpion and other basics. I only discovered Tiki a little more than a year ago, so I don't have a lot of experience with the depth of the cocktail canon.

Our most recent adventure was with South Pacific Punch. I had to register a complaint, though, as I was overserved!

[Edit: My tiki adventure actually begun about 2 years ago, not 1. I just noticed the date I registered for the forum! My how the time flies when you're enjoying cocktails...]

[ Edited by: djmont 2013-07-01 05:53 ]

Here you go, for those who want to see the rum list. I'm a bit OCD, so I did make a list of all of them. But I'm also lazy, so I stopped updating it after a while. But that pretty much coincided with the time I stopped buying much booze, so I think this is pretty accurate. Yes, I know it's a little crazy to have so much rum. :)

10 Cane Rum
Amrut Old Port Deluxe Rum
Angostura Royal Oak Extra Old
Angostura 5 Year Rum
Angostura 1919 8 Year Rum
Angostura 1824 12 Year Rum
Appleton White Rum
Appleton Special Rum
Appleton Estate V/X Rum
Appleton Estate Reserve Rum
Appleton Estate Extra 12 Year Old Rum
Appleton Estate 21 Year Old Rum
Bacardi Superior
Bacardi Gold
Bacardi Oakheart Spiced Rum
Bacardi 1873 Solera
Bacardi 8 Year Rum
Banks 5 Island Rum
Banks "7 Golden Age" Rum
Barbancourt Pango
Barbancourt White
Barbancourt 5 Star Réserve Spéciale 8 Year
Barbancourt Estate Reserve 15 Year
Brugal Ron Blanco Especial
Brugal Extra Viejo
Brugal 1888 Ron Gran Reserva Familiar
Chairman's Reserve Silver Rum
Chairman's Reserve Finest St. Lucia Rum
Clément Première Canne
Clément VSOP
Cockspur Fine Rum
Cockspur Bajan Crafted 12
Cocoribe Coconut Rum
Coruba Dark
Cruzan 9 Spiced Rum
Cruzan Coconut Rum
Cruzan Aged Dark Rum (2 Year)
Cruzan Aged Light Rum (2 Year)
Cruzan Black Strap
Cruzan 151
Cruzan Single Barrel
Denizen Rum
Depaz Blue Cane Rhum
Diplomático Anejo Rum
Diplomático Reserva Rum
Diplomático Reserva Exclusiva Rum
Dos Maderas P.X. 5+5
El Dorado 3 Year Old Demerara Rum
El Dorado 5 Year Old Demerara Rum
El Dorado 6 Year Old Demerara Rum
El Dorado 8 Year Old Demerara Rum
El Dorado 12 Year Old Demerera Rum
El Dorado 15 Year Old Demerera Rum
El Dorado 21 Year Old Demerera Rum
El Dorado High Strength 151
English Harbour 5 Year Rum
Flor de Caña Limón 4 Year
Flor de Caña Extra Dry 4 Year
Flor de Caña Gold 4 Year
Flor de Caña Black Label 5 Year
Flor de Caña Grand Reserve 7 Year
Flor de Caña Centenario 12 Year
George Bowman Colonial Era Dark Caribbean Rum
Gosling's Black Seal Rum
Gosling's Family Reserve Old Rum
Koloa Kauai Gold Hawaiian Rum
La Favorite Rhum Agricole Ambré
Lemon Hart 80 Proof Demerara Rum
Lemon Hart 151 Demerara Rum (Old)
Lemon Hart 151 Demerara Rum (New)
Malibu Coconut Rum
Mount Gay Vanilla Rum
Mount Gay Eclipse Silver
Mount Gay Eclipse
Mount Gay Eclipse Black
Mount Gay Sugar Cane
Mount Gay Special Reserve
Mount Gay Extra Old
Myers's Platinum Rum
Myers's Premium Gold Rum
Myers's Dark Rum
Neisson Blanc Rhum Agricole
Old Monk 7 Year Blended Rum
One Barrel Rum
Oronoco Rum
Plantation 3 Stars
Plantation Original Dark
Plantation Barbados Grande Reserve (5 Year)
Plantation Barbados 2000
Plantation Barbados 20th Anniversary Extra Old
Plantation Grenada 1998
Plantation Jamaica Old Reserve 2000 Rum
Plantation Nicaragua 1998
Plantation Panama 2000
Plantation Trinidad 2000
Pusser's Blue Label Rum
Pyrat XO Reserve Rum
Ron Abuelo 7 Year Rum
Ron Abuelo 12 Year Rum
Ron Atlantico Platino Rum
Ron Atlantico Private Cask
Ron Barceló Imperial
Ron Centenario 9 Year Commemorativo
Ron Centenario 25 Year Gran Reserva
Ron Del Barrilito Two Star
Ron Matusalem Platino
Ron Matusalem Classico
Ron Matusalem Gran Reserva (15 Year)
Ron Medellín 8 Year
Ron Viejo de Caldas 3 Year
Ron Zacapa Centenario Solera Gran Reserva (23 Year)
Ron Zacapa XO (25 Year)
Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum
Saint James Royal Ambre
Saint James Hors d'Age
Santa Teresa Claro
Santa Teresa "Ron Anejo" Gran Reserva Rum
Santa Teresa Selecto Extra Premium Anejo
Santa Teresa 1796 Solera
The Scarlet Ibis Rum
Sergeant Classick Silver
Shellback Silver Rum
Shellback Spiced Rum
Smith & Cross Traditional Jamaica Rum
Stroh Original 80 Rum
Trader Vic's Gold Rum
Trader Vic's Dark Rum
Vizcaya Cask No. 12 Dark Rum
Vizcaya Cask No. 21 VXOP Rum
Wray & Nephew Overproof
Zaya Gran Reserva (12 Year)

You are the Rum King, hands down!

-Longboard

Zowie, nice rum collection!

The sad part is, none of my friends really drink rum.

Wow
I wish I could find a local store that had as much as u

:)

Jon

Basically what everyone else said & hell of a rum list
you can afford to loose the Bacardi & Myers, because you have the good stuff!

Try this, pick one rum cocktail you really like, stick to the recipe precisely
and get really good at making it, serve it to your friends

It may take a while but the ones with taste will like it more as time goes by
and those are your future drinking buddies.

There are a few on the list -- the cheap Bacardi, the Sergeant Classick come to mind -- that I wouldn't drink except under extraordinary circumstances. But I hate pouring our booze. I always figure I can serve them in a punch of something.

I like! Also, you can neva have too much tiki. Seems you captured the spirit though (pun intended).
Cheers

I don't know how to tell you this, but someone left a liquor store in your basement. Like the whole store. Fortunately for you, the store had great shelving.

That, Sir, is my kind of crazy!!

Yowsa!

I'm trying real hard to catch up...

Mahalo for posting.

I'll be your rum lovin' friend!

Field trip anyone? That is a beautiful space and a beautiful collection of rum! Good on ya!

Thanks for the kind words, folks. It's appreciated! :)

On 2013-06-30 13:32, djmont wrote:
There are a few on the list -- the cheap Bacardi, the Sergeant Classick come to mind -- that I wouldn't drink except under extraordinary circumstances. But I hate pouring our booze. I always figure I can serve them in a punch of something.

Echoing the sentiments of others here — Awesome rum collection! At my peak I had about half of that and I think even that had me wife considering a divorce!

Although I haven't yet tried the Sergeant Classick light, the Classick Gold makes en excellent and what I believe to be an historically accurate pirate's Bumbo (rum, a splash of water, grated nutmeg, cinnamon, etc.). Most of the Caribbean rum during the golden age of piracy would have been pot stilled but probably not aged for very long. It is actually pretty hard to find an unaged potstill rum, but that is exactly what Sergeant Classic is. Sadly, I am seeing it around these parts less and less, and when I find it it is often on closeout, so I am not sure how the brand is doing overall.

I seldom bother with more than a handful of white rums, but I am curious about the Classick light. djmont, is there any potstill ester funkiness that you can discern when you taste that one neat?

[Apologies for the temporary threadjack of the home bar forum for rum talk. You can now go back to making me jealous with all your great home Tiki sanctuaries!]

"If you keep on drinking rum, the world will soon be quit of a very dirty scoundrel."
Robert Louis Stevenson

[ Edited by: Sunny&Rummy 2013-07-04 10:14 ]

On 2013-07-01 05:46, Hale Tiki wrote:
I don't know how to tell you this, but someone left a liquor store in your basement. Like the whole store. Fortunately for you, the store had great shelving.

Lol, it was exactly what I was thinking when I saw the pictures, the only thing missing is a checkout stand.

A great job and an impressive rum inventory. Let me know when you are having any clearance sales :wink:

[ Edited by: Dr. Coruba 2013-07-05 08:15 ]

I don't recall much about the taste of the Sergreant Classick, other than that I didn't like it. I looked around for the open bottle, but I think I gave it away. I do have an unopened bottle, though, so if I ever open it, I'll try to remember to taste it for you. (I bought two in the first place because it was on clearance. I don't think it's being distributed anymore.)

It is not often one finds an exalted example of clarity and mindful purpose.

On 2013-06-30 11:32, djmont wrote:
The sad part is, none of my friends really drink rum.

Sad? Look at it this way: More Rum for you!!! Happy!!!

Just wondering about the lighting in the photos... is that the way the lighting always looks, or are all lights up to get a good shot of the room? Have you considered adding some fish float lights, or other tiki type lamps? You can then bring down the general lighting and create a really great atmosphere with a moody tiki-bar ambiance!

Of course the lighting as it is now is perfect for a fabulously well-stocked high-end liquor store! (when can we come shopping?)

The lights are up all the way for the pictures. They're on two separate dimmers, so they can be adjusted. I'd like to add some hanging lights, too. Maybe one of these days.