The Tiki Drink Discussion Topic

[thirtyoneknots]

I think Appleton V/X works really well in a Mai Tai. I usually do 2:1:1/2:1/2:1/4 rum:lime:curacao:orgeat:simple, which I could swear I got from DrinkBoy, but that's not the recipe he has there now.

That is pretty much the original preportion, and Appleton V/X works marvellously I would have to agree (and can be had for such a bargain on sale). The only change in the Drinkboy recipe now vs the older one is it used to include a float of dark rum.

[Chris Amirault]

Dave, what's the recipe for the Both Indies Cocktail?

[vice]

Not the Dave you were asking, but the Both Indies is given here as

2 oz. Inner Circle rum (115 proof)

3/4 oz. lemon juice

1/2 oz. Velvet Falernum

1/4 oz. Grand Marnier

Shake over ice and strain into a chilled glass. Float a couple of drops of Angostura bitters over the drink.

Edited October 21, 2009 by vice (log)

[Chris Amirault]

Let's just say you were teaching a course to cocktail neophytes and wanted to explain what a tiki drink is. What would you say?

[mkayahara]

In 25 words or less? A drink rooted in the tropical-themed restaurants of the mid-20th century, usually based on (multiple) rums, with an emphasis on fresh juices and flavoured syrups.

How's that?

[Chris Amirault]

I like it.

[kathryn]

For tiki drink and iPhone fans, Jeff "Beachbum" Berry and the makers of the Cocktails+ app have released the Tiki+ application. I highly recommend the application, particularly because I find flipping through Sippin' Safari for specific recipes to be sometimes difficult.

[tammylc]

I'm hosting a little cocktail party this weekend, and am planning a tropical and Tiki theme (because my friend Mary just got back from Hawaii and is pining for the tropics). Can you recommend a few Tiki or Tiki style drinks that don't require me to buy 6 different rums? I don't mind buying a couple more (or other mixing liqueurs) to round out my collection, but...

Right now I have Appleton Estates Reserve and Cruzan white rum in my liqueur cabinet. What else is essential, and what can I mix with them?

Thanks in advance!

[bmdaniel]

In terms of Rum, the first two I'd add would be a Demarara (Ideally Lemon Hart Overproof) and a Martinique (St. James); having those two plus what you have would let you make pretty solid versions of the Mai-Tai and the Zombie, which are the two quintessential tiki drinks in my opinion.

Mixer's/liquers/etc are trickier - if you're going to make both you'll need at least Orange Curacao, Orgeat, and Falernum, and really should have some anise and grendadine also. There are great guides available here for making your own orgeat and grenadine, which are both pretty easy. If you've got all this gathered together you'd be in great shape for other tasty tiki drinks too (e.g. a Surf Room Mai Tai).

[tammylc]

Thanks for the tips. It appears I can get the Lemon Hart here in MI, but not the St. James - do you have another recommendation on a Martinique?

I'm almost out of grenadine and have to make up another batch, and just read the thread of Orgeat and think I can pull that off too. But I have a strong suspicion I won't be able to find any Falernum...

[John Rosevear]

Thanks for the tips. It appears I can get the Lemon Hart here in MI, but not the St. James - do you have another recommendation on a Martinique?

I'm almost out of grenadine and have to make up another batch, and just read the thread of Orgeat and think I can pull that off too. But I have a strong suspicion I won't be able to find any Falernum...

Rhum Clement is an excellent Martinique that is (in some parts of the US) easier to find than the St James. I like it a lot -- in fact, I'm sipping a Mai Tai made with Clement's VSOP right now.

Re falernum, if all else fails you can order the Fee Bros syrup online from quite a few vendors.

[tammylc]

Re. Falernum: With the party Saturday, I can't web order cheaply. Found a recipe for making my own that seemed pretty straightforward, but I might just save that for another time.

Having read through this thread, I'm thinking of these three drinks (recipe taken from upthread). These seemed relatively straightforward for a Tiki novice to attempt:

Spievak Zombie (I know it's totally different than the other Zombies, but I love passion fruit and have passion fruit puree in my freezer I can easily make syrup from)

1 oz lemon

1 oz pineapple

1 oz passion fruit syrup

1 oz demerara rum

1 oz white Puerto Rican rum

1 oz gold Puerto Rican rum

tsp brown sugar

Surf Room

1 oz light PR rum

1 oz dark Jamaican rum

1 oz demerara rum

1/4 oz curacao

1/4 oz simple

1/4 oz orgeat

1/4 oz lemon

1/2 oz lime

1 oz pineapple

1 oz orange

Trader Vic's Mai Tai

1 ounce fresh lime juice

1/2 ounce orange Curacao (MB orange Curacao)

1/4 ounce sugar syrup (slightly less rich demarara syrup)

1/4 ounce orgeat syrup (homemade)

1 ounce aged Jamaican rum (Appleton Estate)

1 ounce amber Martinique rum (St. James Ambre)

Although reading those, it looks like it's calling for somewhere between 5 and 7 different rums - what kinds of substitutions can I make to work with the two I have and two more?

Then I just need to make orgeat, juice a lot of fruit and crush a lot of ice...

[Chris Amirault]

Five rums, max, I think: white/light PR, dark PR, demerara, aged Jamaican, Martinique rhum. You can't really sub for the demerara or the Martinique rhum, imo, but you could use the Appleton Estate for your dark PR rum (decadent substitution, I'll add) and get away with those four remaining.

What light PR rum are you considering? I'd urge you to seek out Flor de Cana, Brugal, or Don Q white rums -- and PR style -- and avoid Bacardi like the plague.

[John Rosevear]

The Surf Room Mai Tai is a great party drink. If you multiply all of the proportions by 18, it makes almost exactly a gallon (before ice).

[bmdaniel]

If you like passion fruit and have a good syrup (like from the Goya puree), the Spievak Zombie is a great passionfruit drink.

I think you should be fine if you use Cruzan white as your light PR, the Appleton wherever gold PR or Jamaican are called for, and pick up the Martinique and Demerara.

Sound like a great party!

[tammylc]

If you like passion fruit and have a good syrup (like from the Goya puree), the Spievak Zombie is a great passionfruit drink.

I think you should be fine if you use Cruzan white as your light PR, the Appleton wherever gold PR or Jamaican are called for, and pick up the Martinique and Demerara.

Sound like a great party!

Thank you so much! That exactly the sort of answer I was looking for.

Tonight's project is making Orgeat and Passion fruit syrup. And maybe Falernum too, if I'm really ambitious...

[tammylc]

Five rums, max, I think: white/light PR, dark PR, demerara, aged Jamaican, Martinique rhum. You can't really sub for the demerara or the Martinique rhum, imo, but you could use the Appleton Estate for your dark PR rum (decadent substitution, I'll add) and get away with those four remaining.

What light PR rum are you considering? I'd urge you to seek out Flor de Cana, Brugal, or Don Q white rums -- and PR style -- and avoid Bacardi like the plague.

Missed this post yesterday... thanks, Chris.

I'm going to go with bmdaniel's recommendation below and just sub the white Cruzan rum I have for light PR, but I'll look for one of your recommendations when it comes time to replace this bottle...

[tammylc]

One more question from the tiki drink neophyte - how do I mix and serve the three drinks I picked out (Mai Tai, Surf Room, Spievak Zombie). I've read various threads on here about shaking vs blending and etc...

Thanks!

[Chris Amirault]

I think that most tiki folks would urge you to step away from the blender and use crushed ice for these drinks. If you don't have an ice crusher, just bash a few pounds in an old pillowcase or towel using a wooden mallet or rolling pin and put it back in the freezer, then take it out for use. Don't bash it all to powder, or else you'll have watery drinks. When it's time to serve, shake with some of the crushed ice.

You can also bottle the drinks for service, either by making entire batches (including the fruit juices) or just by combining the non-juice base and then measuring out an appropriate amount, squeezing your citrus, shake, and serve. It eliminates a persnickety step from making these drinks in bulk.

[John Rosevear]

When it's time to serve, shake with some of the crushed ice.

...and don't strain. Just pour the whole thing into the glass, garnish, and serve.

[mkayahara]

What's the effect of shaking with crushed ice and pouring unstrained, versus blending with crushed ice, versus shaking with cubed or cracked ice and pouring over crushed ice? I assume dilution may be greater by shaking with crushed ice than cubed ice (though I realize, in light of the recent Cooking Issues blog posts on dilution, that the jury is still out on this).

When making Tiki drinks, I often find that the amount of crushed ice called for in the recipe isn't enough to fill the glass, so I end up topping up with more to make it look pretty. I'm always tempted to just shake with cubed ice and fill the glass with crushed ice separately. I guess that uses more ice in total, but my gut instinct is that it would keep the drink cold longer.

By the way, I got a manual ice crusher for my birthday last month, and it's one of the best bar presents I've ever received. It's so much easier to use than a kitchen towel and mallet! I'm even finding myself looking for excuses to make crushed-ice drinks now.

[bmdaniel]

What's the effect of shaking with crushed ice and pouring unstrained, versus blending with crushed ice, versus shaking with cubed or cracked ice and pouring over crushed ice? I assume dilution may be greater by shaking with crushed ice than cubed ice (though I realize, in light of the recent Cooking Issues blog posts on dilution, that the jury is still out on this).

When making Tiki drinks, I often find that the amount of crushed ice called for in the recipe isn't enough to fill the glass, so I end up topping up with more to make it look pretty. I'm always tempted to just shake with cubed ice and fill the glass with crushed ice separately. I guess that uses more ice in total, but my gut instinct is that it would keep the drink cold longer.

By the way, I got a manual ice crusher for my birthday last month, and it's one of the best bar presents I've ever received. It's so much easier to use than a kitchen towel and mallet! I'm even finding myself looking for excuses to make crushed-ice drinks now.

I prefer to shake with cubed ice and strain into crushed ice; I find that shaking with crushed ice then topping up can lead to over-dilution (I have an electric ice crusher that produces a pretty fine but not snowlike crushed ice).

[vice]

By the way, I got a manual ice crusher for my birthday last month, and it's one of the best bar presents I've ever received. It's so much easier to use than a kitchen towel and mallet! I'm even finding myself looking for excuses to make crushed-ice drinks now.

Pray tell, which one did you get?

[mkayahara]

By the way, I got a manual ice crusher for my birthday last month, and it's one of the best bar presents I've ever received. It's so much easier to use than a kitchen towel and mallet! I'm even finding myself looking for excuses to make crushed-ice drinks now.

Pray tell, which one did you get?

This one. I swear, it's changed my life.

[John Rosevear]

Looks like a copy of one of the old Rival Ice-O-Mats... I bought one of those (circa 1950, we think) off eBay a couple of years ago for $15 after hearing one of the bartenders at Eastern Standard sing its praises. Changed my life, too.

FWIW, I find that when I shake with cubes and strain into crushed, I inevitably use too much crushed in the glass and end up overdiluted if I don't finish the drink within 5 min or so.