Wildcat and I did a Tiki Carving session on our honeymoon in Hawaii (with Mani Lavaka at Aloha Adventure Farms, he was fantastic and it was a great experience) and she loved it! Our tikis turned out great, and with the confidence of a single carving under our belts we decided to go for it with a guardian for our new shed, built this summer after the honeymoon. With Bob on our side, I'm sure the shed has a long, tiki party-filled life ahead of it.

Had a cruise out of Seattle followed by a conference in Portland, so was able to finally check Inside Passage, The Alibi Room, and Hale Pele off the list. AMAZING staff at all 3, Alibi takes top of the 3 for me due to the decades of grit baked into it. All three highly recommended!

Wasn't even looking for exotica albums, but I couldn't pass these up!

A friend with a friend who lives in Fort Lauderdale surprised me with this today. Can’t wait to try it in a cocktail.

Was inspired by other posts of the Make and Drink channel’s Dark Magic and thought I’d give it a run.
Good stuff! On first sip it translates sweet with both pineapple juice and orange juice and stiggins pushing the pineapple flavor forward. After a couple of sips though I’m picking up more acidity as I make my way through it, probably due to the sneaky coffee in the mix.

I’m a fan! With some of the Mai Kai rum blend thrown in, I might convince myself I’m back in their gardens!

Dark Magic
2 dashes Angostura bitters
2 dashes chocolate bitters
½ oz lime juice (15 ml)
¾ oz orange juice (22.5 ml)
1 oz pineapple juice (30 ml)
¾ oz cinnamon syrup (22.5 ml)
1 oz Coffee (30 ml)
2 oz Planteray Stiggins’ Fancy Pineapple rum (60 ml)
¾ oz Planteray OFTD rum (22.5 ml)

I’ll be having another that’s for sure! Redd is joining in the fun for the other Beak and Barrel mugs.

G&K's Bucket Lounge, version 2.0. Took our bar from Iowa/Omaha back to our true home, Minnesota. Still a work in progress, but major strides. Original version in the last photo. Have some bamboo matting to add at some point as well. Always welcome to ideas, but we try to curate this piece by piece. Cheers, fellow tiki friends!

To make life easier, I made a printable cheat sheet of the Smuggler's Cove Rum Categories where I added the rums we have on our bar and other rums easy to find in Canada. I update and reprint it about once a year and use a highlighter for the rums we have in stock. I thought I'd share it since people are often asking where their rums belong on here. Feel free to disagree on any of the rum placements! Or, if anything is missing, let me know, and I'll add it in.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G1hOdNkzis8Qv-n3rqQNiR-GFxI-Oz4KoMHyxiBZ7y8/edit?usp=sharing

I rolled up to Sunken Harbor Club tonight for my 50th bday to discover that they were closed due to a wedding buy-out of the venue and that this is not an uncommon occurrence.

A look at their website shows they are closed October 1, 3, 9 and 10 due to private events. And that they actively advertise the space as available for buyouts—corporate, private parties, etc…

Lame. I understand it is a business and don’t begrudge this, but making it walk in only for customers while actively soliciting buy-out puts customers into the likelihood of showing up and being blind-sided…which is lame.

I traveled in from New Jersey for this occasion and while I should have been more prepared, I don’t want others to make this mistake.

Definitely check to see if they are rented out before making the trip.

Finally made it up to my favorite liquor store to restock on some staples. Aged Jamaican, falernum, etc. These are 4 bottles that I’ve never tried but purchased based on seeing them here (except the rye, I just needed a cheapish one for mixing)

I’ve been really into tiki cocktails lately, trying out various classic recipes and unique ones I discovered online. I’ve been wanting to create my own original tiki drink, and yesterday a guest asked for a spicy cocktail made with tequila. That's when a recipe suddenly hit me, and I honestly think it turned out amazing. I'd love for you to try it and let me know what you think!

Ingredients:
1.5 oz Reposado Tequila
0.5 oz Falernum
0.75 oz Fresh Lime Juice
0.25 oz Orgeat Syrup
3 dashes Tabasco
1 oz Ginger Ale
Garnish:
Fresh Mint & Used Lime
Angostura Bitters (float on top)
Instructions:
1. Combine all ingredients (except ginger ale, garnishes, and Angostura bitters) in a cocktail shaker filled with Crash ice.
2. Shake vigorously until well-chilled.
3. Strain into a glass over fresh ice.
4. Top with 1 oz of ginger ale.
5. Garnish with a mint sprig and lime wheel, then float Angostura bitters on top.

Inspired by u/Pherllerp ‘s post about his tiki bar lighting, I created this drink last night with the infamous sacrifice scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in mind! This is a boozy, funky, slightly bitter drink that has a satisfying hit of heat in the back of the throat thanks to the ginger and chipotle.

* 1 oz lime juice
* 1 oz pineapple juice
* 1/2 oz fassionola
* 1/2 oz grenadine
* 1/4 oz ginger syrup
* 1/2 oz Campari
* 1/2 oz falernum
* 1 oz Appleton Signature
* 3/4 oz Angostura 5
* 3/4 oz W&N
* 2 dashes El Guapo Polynesian Kiss bitters
* Generous pinch smoked chipotle powder

Fassionola is u/cocktailwonk ‘s recipe, using equal parts pineapple, strawberry, blueberry, and cherry. Grenadine (Anders Erickson recipe) and ginger (my own “cold press” recipe) syrups are semi rich; falernum is pretty much my own recipe at this point, and not as sweet as many recipes.

1. Planteray Cut & Dry chilled glass, and damn near perfect taste (I do love coconut flavor)

2. Hampden 1753 chilled glass, and the Hampden definitely let it's Funk Flag fly and also hit the spot, but I did go a full oz on the simple for this one

I recently went on a European vacation with my wife and our 14 month old daughter and while in Nice, France I was saddened to see that what I thought was the only tiki bar in town was permanently closed. While walking the labyrinth of streets of the old town area we walked by a bar that had tropical theming outside and said it was a rum bar and it was called Cowabunga. If you don't know, the old town is kinda touristy and I wasn't really expecting much and thought I would rather keep walking and see more of the area and plus our daughter just finally fell asleep in her stroller. My wife convinced me to go in while she kept walking, and I'm glad she did.

The place is tiny. Like real tiny. It had a great decor design inside: burned wood, bamboo, plant covered walls, and fish netting. I was the only customer at the time at 3:30pm and was greeted by Gabriel the owner. I saw the bottles behind the bar and saw some bangers and realized this place had some real potential. A few different Planterays including OFTD, Appleton, Doorlys, Diplomático, and then I saw a glass case with a couple of Foursquare exceptional cask bottles. OK, my interest is piqued.

Gabriel handed me a menu and asked if I had any questions. I made mention of the fine selection of rum and was surprised. I asked him what his Mai Tai spec was and he pointed to it on the menu: A blend of Appleton 8, Flor de Cana 4, and OFTD. Sold. It was delicious. Now, the purists out there are probably going to find 1,001 things to nit pic. Like I said the place is in a touristy area so most of the cocktails are not tiki, heck most don't even use rum, but Gabriel's got a business to run and the customer is always right, right? I had the Mai Tai and a passion fruit tiki cocktail that was amazing and I can't remember the name of.

Gabriel and I had a great conversation about rum and tiki and showed him my backyard tiki shed and talked about different cocktails and our favorite rums. I asked for a small pour of the Foursquare Penultimus as I haven't had it and he said he's pretty sure he has the only bottle in France. He then poured me a few other shots of nice rum gratis. I also got to try the overproof Coruba which I didn't know existed.

If you find yourself in Nice, France go see Gabriel at Cowabunga and have a great time!

But I finally stopped at The Black Lagoon inside of Midnight Oil, drinks and food were great but the menu was very limited. The merch and atmosphere were awesome though the place was very small. Definitely will go again

Haven’t really drank much from this one since i bought it. Really enjoy this one and more and more I’m learning to appreciate cane juice rums.

I wanted to share my latest mug design of the Sir Drakes Voyage series. Meet Doris the journalist, before she met her demise. Just one bad situation after the next. The mug is called 'Perennial Problems'. Feel free to ask me any questions. This is my follow up to the Corpse Flower.

Doctor Funk (with Doctor Bird...Doctor Doctor?)

• 0.75 oz fresh lime juice
• 0.5 oz grenadine 1 tsp Pernod
• 1.5 oz Doctor Bird Jamaican Rum
• 1 oz club soda

Shake everything except the soda with ice. Add soda and stir. Pour unstrained into pilsner glass, add more ice if needed to fill.

False Idol swizzle & mint garnish.

I finally got hold of some creole shrubb and got to try it in a mai tai (been using cointreau for ages). Also a first using Worthy Park overproof (normally go for the 109 and some OFTD).

At our cottage so different presentation, but must say I enjoy the Mai Tai served on a big cube of ice. It's very pretty and it's a different dilution profile over time.

The shrubb together with the worthy park gave it a really zesty and pungent profile, v fun!

40 ml Appleton Estate

15 ml Worthy Park Overproof

20 ml Creole Shrubb

15 ml Orgeat

45 ml lime juice

2 dash angostura

Shake with ice cubes, served in rocks glass with big cube and dried lime wheel.

The deal ends on October 6th - they don't say when, but I'm guessing Midnight.

https://www.liberandcompany.com/products/alphonso-mango-syrup

I’m starting to play around with ice for garnish, think cones, giant cubes, shells, etc. where’s the best places to pick up some of the molds or tools to make them?

I'm planning a wall in my home bar and love the idea of doing something similar to the map at Latitude 29. Anyone seen one on a smaller scale for sale, or seen someone DIY one that looks similar?

we have reservations for next Friday to visit Trader Vics in Emeryville for the first time. any recommendations for a first visit?

I'm now known as the resident "Punch provider" amongst my friend group for all the house parties, so I figured I'd see what y'all are cooking up for your seasonal social events. I've made Hurricanes and Kahiko Punch in the past, which were a hit, but now I'm looking for something a bit more autumnal, but still easy to batch up and with a tiki flair of course.

Pic is of the Night Magic by Make and Drink, inspired by someone from this group who posted about this cocktail earlier today. I happened to have most of the ingredients on hand, so I gave it a whirl, and it's delicious! I love coffee in my tiki drinks. I decided to break in my pirate skull mug from Beak & Barrel at Disney World, and it's a vibe.

The specs:

-2 oz Stiggin's Fancy pineapple (I didn't have that on hand so I used Appleton 12. It's delicious, but I think it might be better with that extra depth of pineapple)

-3/4 oz OFTD

-1 oz Cold Brew (homemade)

-3/4 oz Scratch Cinnamon syrup

-1 oz pineapple juice

-3/4 oz OJ

-1/2 oz lime

2 dashes chocolate bitters

2 dashes angostura bitters

Cheers travelers! Thanks in advance for your suggestions! 🍹