Welcome to the Tiki Central 2.0 Beta. Read the announcement
Tiki Central logo
Celebrating classic and modern Polynesian Pop

Tiki Central / Tiki Drinks and Food

Must have tiki drinks for any tiki menu?

Pages: 1 7 replies

We here at The Lucky Star Tiki bar are about to open a commercial Tiki Bar in the San Jose Ca area. We would like to ask you, the tiki community, what are the must have tiki drinks? Classic drinks, homage drinks, or from your favorite tiki bars past and present. Even contemporary tiki creations. What is the must have tiki drink? Name as many drinks as you like. No need to limit yourselves to the Zombie and Mai Tai's. Lets hear it!

In addition to a well-made mai tai and a 1934 formula zombie, I'd say my ideal tiki bar would have:
Navy Grog (DtB recipe)
Rum Barrel (A nice stiff version with passion fruit in it, like Steve Crane's)
Blue Hawaiians (To get the greenhorns acclimated)

and a good communal cocktail to serve in a flaming volcano bowl.

KG

Definitely some sort of scorpion bowl, a test pilot, a rum swizzle, bahama mama, painkiller, and the one thing i've never seen anyone else do, is a version of the Bali Hai cocktail. I'm not a huge coffee guy, but I do love the Bali Hai, at least the version I learned to make. Like anything else, there's 1000 variations of it, so I try to keep as true as I can to the originals.

Try out a Goombay Smash. The name has pop-culture appeal, and it can be made with low-end rums (Captain Morgan and Malibu Coconut) which can help your bar make a profit and stay in business. I remember my first one, and I was pleasantly surprised. I use the recipe from drinksmixer.com:

http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink3905.html


"I am not an alcoholic, I'm a drunk. I assure you, there is a difference."

K

Mai Tai
Navy Grog
Painkiller
Zombie

...are the obvious choices for me. I'd want to see:

Coconaut
Fogcutter
Jet Pilot
Three Dots and a Dash

I get excited when I see some of these drinks on a menu:

Saturn
Jungle Bird
Painkiller
Three Dots
151 Rum Swizzle
Nui Nui

as well as the obvious Mai Tai and Zombie.

What I really dig about the Bay Area tiki bars is the adoption of cocktail's from the places that no longer exist, so I would start doing research on what was around before.

Good starting point would be San Mateo and the Lanai. The cocktail would be the Sidewinder's Fang.

Forbidden Island and Smuggler's Cove both do a fantastic version of this cocktail.

Quick answer:
a few serious classics:
Mai Tai
Scorpion
Fog Cutter
Pupule (or Nui Nui)
Zombie
jet (test) Pilot
Rum Barrel
Navy Grog
Planter's Punch
Missionary's Downfall
Aku Aku Lapu

** Bowl

then it couldn't hurt too much to add:
Daiquiri
El Diablo
Painkiller
Jungle Bird
Singapore Sling
Alexander
Dr Funk
Suffering Bastard
Honi Honi
Halekulani
Milk Punch
Coquito
PiƱa Collada
La Florida drinks(daiquiris, cocktail, El Presidente)
Ti Punch
Rum Old Fashioned
Bumboo
Mojito
El Draque

Not all "Tiki", and not all Rum, but most could be either considered "exotic", or had a place at various exotic bars historically.

Matter of personal preference how many originals vs classics you want as well.

Good luck on your new venture! Sounds awesome, Congrats!

Pages: 1 7 replies