To me there will always be something very special with Tiki drinks, they are so much more than beautiful to look at and so bloody tasty! – and a pain in the ass to make sometimes, especially if you need to make many but if you just hang on and go through with them you are greatly rewarded.
Actually the Tiki drinks doesn`t just deliver great flavours to you, often in a layered fashion allowing you to discover new flavours one after another, they also impart a feeling, a sense of “mystery” and of course the inevitable escape to far away Pacific islands which at least i need, now in these gloomy days which turns darker for each day.
The hunting down of obscure ingredients can sometimes be another problem, which can be solved by making things yourself or sub ingredients with the closest you may have at hand and making flavored syrups, pimento dram, falernum or orgeat is easier than most people think. Good recipes are also easy to find on the many cocktail blogs.
When i started this blog a year and half ago i made only Tiki drinks at the time – which has changed to be all kinds of drinks. While browsing around my old tiki drink pictures i felt i wanted to visit them again and make a few of the old ones.
Here`s a range of drinks i made in my early blogging-days and a new twist of the Jungle Bird with demerara rum which was very tasty. In the Sumatra Kula i have added an extra oz of white agricole to spice it up a bit. I first made it with 1.5 oz white rum as it is in the original recipe but i found it a bit tame and i think it needed that extra splash of agricole to really come to life.
So if you grab your shakers let`s start with the “Kulas” – if anyone knows why some Tiki drinks has that kula in the name please let me know, i`m curious about it. This is supposed to be one of the first drinks served by Don the Beachcomber at his bar in Hollywood, circa 1934. But if you wanna be really genuine omit the rhum agricole.
SUMATRA KULA (From Sippin Safari)
0.5 oz fresh lime juice
0.5 oz grapefruit juice
0.5 oz orange juice
0.5 oz honey-mix (equal parts honey and water, warm up to mix, let cool and bottle, keeps in the fridge for about a week)
1.5 oz light rum
1 oz rhum agricole blanc
3 oz crushed ice
Put everything in blender, saving ice for last, blend at high speed for no more than 5 sek. Pour into a pilsner glass, add crushed ice to fill. Garnish with a mint sprig. (which i didn´t - i used pineapple leaves.)
CUBA KULA From Sippin`Safari
This drink is from the personal notebook of Ray Buhen dated 1935.
And this is another drink i made an ice mold with, i think chimney glasses are very good for these kinds of molds where the ice is supposed to raise itself up from the glass. You make these by placing preferably shaved ice in a pilsner glass in the freezer overnight, just make sure the mold is a bit thinner than the glass you`re gonna serve the drink in and that there`s space for the straw.
2 oz fresh lime juice
1/2 oz honey
1 oz orange juice
1 oz dark rum, the recipe calls for Myers but i used Coruba12
1 oz Lemon Hart demerara
1/2 oz Bacardi 151
Dash Angostura bitters
6 drops Herbsaint or Pernod
Dissolve the honey in the limejuice and then place it all in a shaker and shake with plenty of ice.
GUATEMALA COOLER From Sippin`Safari
I used different rums in this one as i don`t have the rums called for, so instead of a gold Puerto Rican i used my Jamaican Lemon Hart and then i used Appleton VX. I didn`t use an old fashioned glass with ice cubes either, i used a small pilsner type of glass and made an ice mold where you raise the ice up on the sides by pushing it down in the middle, finally i placed a shy orchid in the middle of the ice.
0.5 oz fresh lime juice
0.5 oz unsweetened pineapple juice
1 oz Lopez coconut cream
1 oz gold Puerto Rican rum
¾ oz gold Jamaican rum
6 oz crushed ice
Put everything in blender, saving ice for last, blend at high speed for 10 sek and pour into a double old fashioned, add ice cubes to fill.
GUYANA BIRD
This is a twist on the Jungle Bird which is one of my favorite Tiki drinks. I replaced the dark rum with demerara rum and also added a float of overproof demerara and some fresh orange juice, it turned out really tasty. My friend thought it was too strong which allowed me to have the whole awesomeness for myself;-)
This is a drink that like the Mai Tai let the spirits shine and its that kind of tiki drinks i have found out that i prefer. The 1934Â Zombie Punch is another example of such a drink, strong but well balanced.
0.75 oz campari
0.5 oz fresh lime
0.5 oz simple syrup
2 oz pineapple juice
1 oz orange juice
1 oz demerara rum
1 oz overproof demerara rum to float
Shake and pour into a highball filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a lime rose.
SPINDRIFT
Here`s an old favorite, i really like this drink, its strong and fullbodied with a perfect balance of flavours.
3 oz orange juice
2 oz fresh lemon juice
1 oz passionfruit syrup
¾ oz simple syrup
0.5 t vanilla extract
2 oz dark Jamaican rum
1.5 oz demerara rum
1 oz light Puerto Rican rum
Blend with 2.5 cups srushed ice and pour into a large snifter.
I always come back to the tiki drinks, no matter how long i`ve been away to mix other kinds of drinks – i always return because these drinks are a part of me they`re in my blood.
How do you like tiki drinks? and what about all the mess with mixing them? is it worth the effort or not?
