Share your signature tiki drink

Hi all.

As we are building and enjoying our backyard tiki bar we started to develop signature tiki drinks that of corse are themed. I wondered if any of you have done the same. I am pretty sure we all have at least one house cocktail we like to make and serve in our bars. So I thought maybe we could share the recipes.

So The Lucky Star Tiki bar is a WWII South Pacific pilots tiki lounge. So of corse we had to have drinks named after the aircraft of the period. The first drink we came up with was the Venture after the bars name sake the lockheed PV-1 Vega Venture. It goes something like this.

16oz glass (pint glass)
Fill with ice
1/2 oz Malabo Mango
1/2 dark rum
1/2 white rum
Juice of 1/2 name squeezed
2 to 3 dashes of bitters
Finish with equal parts
POG juice (passion, orange guava juice) and ginger ale

Shake and serve with a 151 float. You ain't driving home after one or five but they sure are good.

What's yours? I will post more of our drinks here
Okole Maluna
Will

We've had a long-standing standard drink for our lounge, the Pink-Slip Mai Tai.

El Dorado 15
St James Aged
Senior Curacao Curacao
Home made Orgeat
Trader Vics Rock Candy Syrup
Fresh Lime

And it got its name because the lady who brought me the bottle of El Dorado 15 had a couple of these before going to work. On an empty stomach. You can connect the rest of the dots, I'm sure.

I'm not sure if it's truly a signature drink yet, as I only made it for the first time last night, but it was pretty darn tasty, and I imagine I'll get it in the regular rotation.

OK, OK, enough talk, on with the rum...

1ish oz. Smith & Cross (the "Navy Strength" gives it a bit more punch)
1ish oz. Ron Añejo Pampero Aniversario
3 oz. Simply Orange With Pineapple
1/2 oz. Pure pineapple juice poured straight from the bowl of my cut pineapple chunks
1/2 oz. Simple syrup (could probably cut back to 1/4)
1/4 oz. Aunty Lilikoi passion fruit juice (probably would have used a bit more, but I'm low)
1/2 a medium-sized lime squeezed (didn't measure the amount)
Shake with crushed ice, strain into tiki mug, then fill mugs with crushed ice to fill

I garnished them with two pineapple chunks on either side of a cherry speared with a sword, a mint sprig (of course), and a lime I "creatively" sliced into a winding snake-like garnish that started inside the mug and trailed outside (as you drink, it slowly pulls inside as the drink level lowers)

I'm usually not a huge fan of the Smith & Cross, as it's definitely a harsher taste than my standard Appleton 12 Year, but in this, the flavor combination worked very well.

Here's how they looked sitting at our bar, ready for sipping:

Here are 2. One is a take on Martin's 2070 swizzle and the other is a down and dirty Black Magic-ish thing.

Swanky Swizzle

1 oz Angostura 1919 or other quality Gold Rum
1/2 oz Lemon Hart 151
1/2 oz Smith & Cross
1/2 oz Fresh Lime Juice
1/2 oz Cinnamon Infused Simple Syrup (If you use Trader Tiki/BG Reynold’s, you may need to cut it back. His syrup is extremely strong. Cut it in half)
1/2 oz Honey Mix
1/2 oz Strong Kona coffee (chilled of course)
1/4 oz St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram
4 drops Pernod
2 dash Angostura bitters

Mix in a milkshake type mixer, or shake, etc. with about 4-6 oz crushed ice. Pour in tall glass adding more ise to fill.

1 pinch freshly ground nutmeg on top
Cinnamon Stick swizzle

Headshrinker
3 oz Pineapple Juice
1 oz Hiram Walker Coffee Brandy (or other coffee liqueur)
1/4 oz Lemon Juice
2 oz Myers's
1/2 tsp Cinnamon Infused Syrup
Lemon Zest garnish

6 oz crushed ice shaken or mixed to chill. Serve in brandy snifter or other large glass.

Love the coffee/cinnamon duo, will try out soon

Does anyone have a good recipe for doing a large batch of tasty rum drink? I host cocktail parties at my place every so often and to better enjoy the night I usually whip up about a gallons worth of something when the festivities kick off for people to help themselves to and then play around with other drinks as needed. My go to has been the Rum Barrel recipe Hurricane Hayward shared with me a few years back. It's very easy to duplicate into larger batches since most of the ingredients are in equal proportion and usually swooshing it around every so often keeps the consistency correct. It's always been a hit and never failed me but I've been trying to change things up a bit lately and it seems most other recipes don't translate as well when I try to make them in large batches. Would be great if someone had a ready made Planter's recipe to fill say 64 or 128 ounces.

From Trader Vics own book....

A favorite house drink of mine that is also an easy scale-up because it's an equal parts recipe:

Podgy and Jasper

1 oz white rum
1 oz Coruba
1 oz 1:1 honey mix
1 oz Jasper's Mix

Shake on ice and pour unstrained. It has a flavor profile similar to the Witch Doctor. If you like the lime/sugar/Ango/nutmeg combination of the Jasper's Mix you will like this one.

Thanks guys. Just realized the Grog Log has a couple party punch recipes in the back. Now I have options and a tough decision to make.

Here's a punch recipe from my book, Professor Cocktail's Zombie Horde: Recipes for the World's Most Lethal Drink:

Andy Pearson's Zombie Punch (2010)

Source:
Andy Pearson
BBC2's Something for the Weekend
London, England, 2010

Instructions:
10 tbsp. Dark Brown Sugar
300ml/10 1/2 fl oz. Lemon Juice
300ml/10 1/2 fl oz. White Rum
300ml/10 1/2 fl oz. Gold Rum
300ml/10 1/2 fl oz. Demerara Rum (preferably 151 proof)
300ml/10 1/2 fl oz. Pineapple Juice
300ml/10 1/2 fl oz. Lime Juice
300ml/10 1/2 fl oz. Passion Fruit Syrup
8-10 dashes Bitters
1 pineapple

Place the brown sugar and the lemon juice into a jug and stir to dissolve. Place the lemon mixture and all the other ingredients into a large bowl and stir well.
Either serve the punch in the bowl or pour into a hollowed-out pumpkin. (Remove the top, scoop out the flesh and seeds and discard.) Add 1 lemon (cut into 8 pieces) and 1 lime (cut into 8 pieces) and serve.

Professor's Note:
Andy Pearson is an award-winning mixologist and director of the drinks consultancy Intoxicology. This recipe is basically the Spievak Zombie on steroids. If you ever need to make a big batch of Zombies for a party, this is a good way to go.

On 2014-07-18 08:04, mikehooker wrote:
Thanks guys. Just realized the Grog Log has a couple party punch recipes in the back. Now I have options and a tough decision to make.

No tough decisions at all if you make them in smaller test batches. Keep a sure-fire one ready for your guests just in case, but do some tests and let them tell you what they think. That adds even more fun to a cocktail party.

Beachcombers Punch from Grog Log is a big hit with most everyone I have over. There are about 8 ingredients though, and it's a blender drink. But it's very worth considering. My guests appreciate that I have to blend it as opposed to serving it from a punch bowl. That last blender step makes the drink more "personal" when served by the host. You can mix the ingredients in advance and have them ready. You can even let your guests blend their own.

On 2014-07-17 21:54, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:
From Trader Vics own book...

1 bottle Lemon Hart 151, ouch.

I have a handful of original cocktails I've served over the years, here are the two that are heaviest in the rotation these days:

Agrabana Grog
Recipe here: http://www.cookooree.com/u/humuhumu/recipes/agrabana-grog
Over time, a tikiphile gets accustomed to the typical spice profiles used in tropical drinks, and they start to lose that "oooh, what is that?" tingly mystery. This drink is my way of bringing back that sense of discovery for my tiki dork friends.

INGREDIENTS
1-1/4 oz Cruzan white rum
3/4 oz Appleton V/X rum
3/4 oz fresh grapefruit juice
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
3/4 oz garam masala syrup
3/4 oz club soda
sprig of mint

DIRECTIONS
Shake the rums, juices and syrup together with ice. Strain into a tall glass with crushed ice, top with the club soda, and garnish with the mint sprig.

Pier 9
Recipe here: http://www.cookooree.com/u/humuhumu/recipes/pier-9-cocktail
Like the Agrabana Grog, this one also has a flavor that's unexpected in a tall glass of tropical rum: chocolate. I think it's great with the ginger. Tempus Fugit makes a very high-quality cacao like no other, I don't know that this drink would work with a garden-variety crappy chemical cacao.

INGREDIENTS
1-3/4 oz Flor de Caña 4 gold rum
3/4 oz Lillet Blanc
1/2 oz Tempus Fugit Crème de Cacao
3/4 oz lemon juice
1-1/2 oz ginger beer
candied ginger

DIRECTIONS
Shake rum, Lillet, cacao and lemon juice together with ice. Strain into a glass with crushed ice, top with the ginger beer and the candied ginger garnish.

On 2014-07-17 21:39, mikehooker wrote:
Does anyone have a good recipe for doing a large batch of tasty rum drink? I host cocktail parties at my place every so often and to better enjoy the night I usually whip up about a gallons worth of something when the festivities kick off for people to help themselves to and then play around with other drinks as needed. My go to has been the Rum Barrel recipe Hurricane Hayward shared with me a few years back. It's very easy to duplicate into larger batches since most of the ingredients are in equal proportion and usually swooshing it around every so often keeps the consistency correct. It's always been a hit and never failed me but I've been trying to change things up a bit lately and it seems most other recipes don't translate as well when I try to make them in large batches. Would be great if someone had a ready made Planter's recipe to fill say 64 or 128 ounces.

I've made Bosko's - Blood of the Kapu Tiki, which is in Remixed, for several gatherings in my lounge with great success.

Here's mine...read the whole arc:

http://basiccivilization.blogspot.com/2013/02/tiki-month-we-meet-again.html

http://www.killingtime.com/Pegu/2013/02/22/a-tiki-month-original-the-aku-kapo-cooler-from-basic-civilization/

http://basiccivilization.blogspot.com/2013/02/my-tiki-month-followup.html

In 2008, I created a signature drink to serve our guests, as we cruised on our houseboat, The Leaky Tiki. Later, I shared the recipe for the Fateful Trip in a cocktail chain postcard thread, here on TC. Here's the link to the recipe, which was sent to 'Murph' (he misplaced the postcard for a while), along with his review:
The Fateful Trip recipe.

"The rum's the thing..."

[ Edited by: Limbo Lizard 2014-07-19 13:35 ]

mikehooker: I'm partial to this punch recipe from "Taboo Table" ...

It serves 6, but you could easily scale it up to 12 or 18.

As for signature drinks, it's tough to pick one. My most recent, The Mai-Kai Hurricane, is the best I've come up with in a while ...
http://www.slammie.com/atomicgrog/blog/2014/07/15/tales-of-the-cocktails-signature-drink-packs-a-wallop-but-can-it-tame-a-hurricane-inspired-by-the-mai-kai/

Thanks for the tips and recipes everyone. The party ended up having way more in attendance than our usual soirees and I was utterly unprepared! I wanted to have the first batch of punch ready before guests arrived but I was still squeezing roughly a bagillion limes and crushing mounds of ice in the Oster Snoflake I just picked up on Etsy for 10 bucks(my new favorite toy) when people began showing up. Snacks were laid out (we tried replicating the Mai Kai pu pu platter) but I could see the natives were thirsty and getting restless and I should begin serving up drinks before I had a riot on my hands. I started with the Kapu Kai cuz it's so simple and delicious. I only intended to make a few but before I knew it a line of tiki mugs was forming and my LH151 was rapidly diminishing. Once everyone got a little teaser in their system I went back to my old stand by, a big ole batch of Rum Barrel. I really wanted to dive into something new for this occasion, which is why I posted on this thread in the first place, but as more and more guests arrived and I had to get something banged out quickly, I decided not to take chances with something I hadn't tried before and went with something I could make blindfolded. Next time I will be sure to allow myself more time for experimentation and report the results here. The Rum Barrels were a huge hit as always. I doctor the recipe a bit, just substituting the grapefruit juice with pineapple. More drinks were made throughout the night but this post is already longer than it should be.

mein Gott!

THOU SHALT NOT WASTE LH151 ON THE MASSES!!!!

I KNOW! It will not happen again. I only have three bottles in reserve.

the masses are usually pleased most by cuervo gold with cuervo margarita mix...

Ha, Cuervo... That's some really vile stuff, and the masses love it.

The Oster Sno-Flake is one of my absolute favorite tools! (Along with their "milkshake" blade and steel jar which is THE ideal rig for flash blending.)

But you need a lever squeezer for lime-ing up for a regiment of guests. I couldn't do it without such a beast.

-J.

[ Edited by: jokeiii 2015-06-16 11:42 ]

Mike, you can't go wrong with a batch of of Rum Barrels. Good to hear you pulled it off!

On 2014-07-18 08:50, djmont wrote:
Here's a punch recipe from my book, Professor Cocktail's Zombie Horde: Recipes for the World's Most Lethal Drink:

Andy Pearson's Zombie Punch (2010)

Source:
Andy Pearson
BBC2's Something for the Weekend
London, England, 2010

Instructions:
10 tbsp. Dark Brown Sugar
300ml/10 1/2 fl oz. Lemon Juice
300ml/10 1/2 fl oz. White Rum
300ml/10 1/2 fl oz. Gold Rum
300ml/10 1/2 fl oz. Demerara Rum (preferably 151 proof)
300ml/10 1/2 fl oz. Pineapple Juice
300ml/10 1/2 fl oz. Lime Juice
300ml/10 1/2 fl oz. Passion Fruit Syrup
8-10 dashes Bitters
1 pineapple

Place the brown sugar and the lemon juice into a jug and stir to dissolve. Place the lemon mixture and all the other ingredients into a large bowl and stir well.
Either serve the punch in the bowl or pour into a hollowed-out pumpkin. (Remove the top, scoop out the flesh and seeds and discard.) Add 1 lemon (cut into 8 pieces) and 1 lime (cut into 8 pieces) and serve.

Professor's Note:
Andy Pearson is an award-winning mixologist and director of the drinks consultancy Intoxicology. This recipe is basically the Spievak Zombie on steroids. If you ever need to make a big batch of Zombies for a party, this is a good way to go.

Hi Professor!

I found your book by looking for zombie recipes. The above recipe (in the version for a single zombie), i'v seen attributed to you on the internet "Dr Cocktail's." It really is my favorite version. Anyway.

Here's my signature, I find much like the beachcomber who's style I try to emulate I'm still constantly tinkering with it.

'Ancient Astronaut'

1 oz fresh lime juice
1/2 oz Falernum (John D. Taylor Velvet )
1/3 oz Cinnamon Syrup (monin is what I used originally I switched to BG reynolds)
1/2 oz Gran Marnier
3/4 oz Virgin islands white rum (cruzan is my go to)
3/4 oz Reposado Tequila (I've been using casadores)
3/4 oz Demarera 151 (Lemon Hart)
dash of orange bitters
dash of pernod

Blend everything save the 151 with 8 oz of cracked ice for no more than 5 seconds. Serve in a highball glass float 151, add ice to fill, garnish with mint (broken).

The story behind this one is that I was reading 'remixed' one night and thinking of mixing up a test pilot, reading the entry which notes that the Test pilot was constantly being reinvented and riffed off of with names like the space pilot and the astronaut. I thought to myself that I'd like to try something similar but needed a good name (what's a good drink without a good name?) My glance crossed the next page and happened upon the 'Ancient Mariner' and it hit me 'Ancient Astronaut' I hit up google to see if anyone had claimed the name, and found nothing so I set to work coming up with something.

The name was so good I decided to run with it as the theme too, which informed that I should try to use ingredients with a mezzo american origin (basically stuff from latin america). I ended up altering so much that it doesn't really resemble a test pilot anymore, it's still dry, but it's got a lot more body and a spicy punch and complexity that pushes it more into the realm of something like a zombie, not to mention the fact that I upped the alcohol significantly.

I'd planned to go to Tiki Oasis and offer it on the room crawl, but my brother couldn't go and I didn't feel like solo'ing. Still tinkering with it, my current thought is to add a little more juice to round it out and play with the bitters/pernod to see what I can get with other bitters/liquer combos.

[ Edited by: DevilDude 2014-10-02 13:07 ]