Sharp Robert - Tiki drinks : tropical cocktails for the modern bar

DEDICATED TO EVERYONE WHO KNOWS WHERE THE RUM HAS GONE

Many people think of tiki drinks as being extremely fruity and syrupy-sweet, but that idea of a tiki drink is from the decline of the tiki trend, when drink mixes, not fresh fruit juices, were the standard behind the bar. When the first mixologists started to make the first tiki drinks, they were made with fresh juices, high-quality rums, and homemade sweetenersnot just because these ingredients make for a better cocktail, but because the tiki drinks that they were creating were like nothing anyone had ever tasted before.

As tiki drinks regain popularity, they need an ingredient-driven, craft cocktailstyle makeover to give a new generation of cocktail drinkers an appreciation of what the original craze was about.

The idea of a tiki drink probably conjures up images of kitschy 1970s bars serving brightly colored, syrupy-sweet blended drinks in tall, curving glasses. Tiki was definitely popular in the 1970s, but tiki drinks have been around much, much longer than that.

The first tiki bar was Dons Beachcomber Cafe, which opened in Los Angeles in 1934, shortly after Prohibition was repealed. During Prohibition, rum was a popular spirit because it was easily smuggled into the United States from the Caribbean, where it was produced. After the repeal of the 18th Amendment, bar patrons could go back to drinking whiskey and gin, spirits they had not had in quite some time, and rum became extremely cheap. An enterprising and well-traveled man named Donn Beachborn Ernest Raymond Beaumont Ganttdecided to take advantage of all that inexpensive rum and turn it into something completely different. Inspired by his travels through the Caribbean and the South Pacific, he opened Dons Beachcomber Cafelater renamed Don the Beachcomberas a Polynesian-themed restaurant serving up tropical drinks and exotic food that you couldnt find anywhere else.

The restaurant was a huge hit with Hollywood celebrities and you could find such people as the Marx Brothers and Clark Gable dining there on any given night. But while these patrons were the stars of the silver screen, the cocktails were the stars at Don the Beachcomber. The drinks were unlike anything you would find at any other bar. They used lots of citrus and tropical fruit juices, a wide variety of rumssome blended together to create completely new flavor profiles, and house-made syrups and liqueurs that added additional layers of flavor. The drinks used secret recipes that Donn himself came up with; they were so secret that even the bartenders didnt know exactly what went into the bottles that they used to mix such drinks as the Zombie and the Vicious Virgin.

Don the Beachcomber might have been a one-off themed bar instead of the start of an enduring trend if it wasnt for Victor Bergeron, better known as Trader Vic, who owned a bar in Oakland, California, called Hinky Dinks. Perhaps inspired by the success of Don the Beachcomber in Hollywood, he transformed his bar into a Polynesian paradise and relaunched it in 1937 as Trader Vics. Trader Vic was a shrewd businessman and it wasnt long before Trader Vics franchises began to open. The first was in Seattle in 1940 and they spread all over the globe from there. More than a dozen locations still operate today.

As popular as these early tiki bars were, the tiki craze didnt really take off until after World War II ended. In the late 1940s, thousands of American servicemen were returning from time spent in the South Pacific and Hawaii with a bit of a taste for exotic fruits, juices and foods. At the same time, air travel to those placesparticularly to Hawaiiwas becoming both very affordable and very popular. The middle class was inspired by the food, drink, and flair of all things exotic. This new taste for Polynesian Pop culture led to the opening of hundreds of tiki bars all across the country, giving everyone access to that romanticized Hawaiian vacation without ever needing to head to the airport.

The first wave of tiki culture began to crest in the mid-1960s and came crashing down in the 1970s. Bars were serving syrupy-sweet drinks made from premade mixes, not from fresh fruit, and much of the original exoticism had worn off. Many of the original tiki bars had closed downthe original Trader Vics closed in 1972and all tiki-philes were left with was a handful of small bars that tenaciously clung to their old recipes and loyal clientele.

Today, tiki cocktails are seeing a major revival for the first time in decades. Tiki drinks are once again being made with fresh juices, homemade syrups, and high-quality rums. Classic drinks are being served by bartenders who are rediscovering old recipes and new tiki drinks are being innovated by cocktail enthusiasts who are learning just how delicious rum really is.

The recipes in this book are meant to bring both classic and modern tiki drinks to life. They capture those exotic flavors that made tiki culture such a huge hit in its heyday, but in a way that is balanced and designed to appeal to the modern palate. This isnt to say that were taking these drinks too seriously. In addition to being delicious, tiki drinks should be a lot of fun, and we can guarantee that youre going to have a lot of fun as you drink your way through these cocktails.

Rum is the most important ingredient in the bar for a tiki mixologist and it is what really sets tiki drinks apart from most other cocktails. Rums are generally produced in tropical countries that also produce sugar, since they are made from sugarcane, molasses, and other by-products of the sugar production process. Even though rums are made with the same basic ingredient, they can taste very different depending on their place of origin.

Rum, like wine, has a strong sense of terroir, which means that rums from different rum-producing countries have very different flavor profiles. This means that one rum can taste very different from another and switching out the basic rum in a cocktail can completely change the flavor of the drink. That said, we know that you dont have to pick up two dozen different brands of rum that youve never heard of before you even try any of the cocktails in this book. Instead of giving you a shopping list, were giving you a crash course in rum that will let you know what to expect before you buy a bottle. The rums that we use in our recipes are categorized fairly broadly, so you can use what you already have with a little more flexibility. That said, the particular type of rum matters more in some drinks than others and, when it does, we always note that in the recipe.

The bottom line: You will get the best results in your cocktails if you use high-quality rums in these recipes. Not unlike wine, rums that cost a little bit more tend to taste a whole lot better. This doesnt necessarily mean that you always have to use top-shelf spirits in your cocktails, but we really recommend avoiding the bottom shelf unless youre going to be making drinks for people you want to leave the party quickly.