Newbie syrup questions

Hi, I'm very new to mixing tropical drinks, but have a question regarding syrups. I bought a few syrups on my last trip to Hawaii, but these are marketed as pancake/waffle toppings [by the way, they work great on waffles :)]. I imagine they are the same as drink syrups... they are mainly sugar or corn syrup with real fruit juice. My search didn't come up with any results for these brands.

I have:

--Sweet Mele's Hawaiian Surfboard Syrup - PASSION FRUIT

--Sweet Mele's Hawaiian Surfboard Syrup - COCONUT (made with Cream of Coconut)

--Hawaii GUAVA syrup (Muldavi Corporation)

Anyone have experience with these?

Welcome to Tiki Central keola!

As for the syrups mentioned, I would be cautious about using them to make drinks (you wouldn't want to waste good booze, right?). Since they're made for pancakes, they're probably not as sweet as cocktail syrups. Your best bet is to try to track down Trader Vic's Passion Fruit syrup or Trader Vic's Koko Creme (sp?) at your local specialty liquor store. They really are the standards when making tiki-style, tropical cocktails and Beachbum Berry's cocktail recipe books (Grog Log and Intoxica!) specifically lists them as ingredients to many of his concoctions. I don't know about Guava syrup and don't remember seeing any specific recipes requiring it as an ingredient although some drinks use Guava or Mango Juice, like the Jumex brand, found in Mexican food markets or even larger supermarkets. Good luck and cheers!

I just ordered some syrups, so you might try this vendor.

http://www.liquorama.net/index.asp?PageAction=PRODSEARCH&txtSearch=trader+vic&btnSearch=GO&Page=1