Hangover Thursday: In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room

It’s Hangover Thursday how’s your head? Due to my knowledge of trivial current events and mystery authors I scored a couple free beers last night so I’m feeling pretty good. Here in Orlando it looks like the temperature is going to be in the 80s but I’m seeing the North is going to be getting hit with more snow next week. So how can you get yourself over those winter blues? May I suggest, a little Tiki time?

Tiki Bars, those dark little areas of the world filled with bamboo, hula girls, and statues of Polynesian gods might be just thing you need if snow and foul weather are starting to bring you down. Places like Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic’s are famous for dishing up rum laden drinks decorated with umbrellas and plastic animals. Now, I can’t send you palm tress and dancing girls. I wish I could, it’d be the most profitable business ever. I can give you recipes to some of the iconic Tiki drinks.

Planters Punch

• 3 oz. dark rum
• 1/2 oz. grenadine
• Tablepoon of sugar
• Juice of a small lime
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• Stir with crushed ice and strain

Trader Vic’s Original Mai Tai
• 2 oz of 17-year old J. Wray & Nephew Rum over shaved ice
• Add juice from one fresh lime
• 1/2 oz Holland DeKuyper Orange Curacao
• 1/4 oz Trader Vic's Rock Candy Syrup
• 1/2 oz French Garnier Orgeat Syrup
• Shake vigorously.
• Add a sprig of fresh mint

Since you aren’t going to find 17-year old J. Wray & Nephew Rum, how about something a little more modern?

Adapted Mai Tai
• 1 oz Jamaican amber rum
• 1 oz Demerara rum
• 1 oz fresh lime juice
• ½ oz Grand Marnier
• ½ oz orgeat syrup
• Shake with ice and strain
• Garnish with mint sprig and empty lime shell for garnish

Classic Daiquiri
• ½ oz fresh lime juice
• ½ oz simple syrup
• 2 oz white rum
• Shake with ice and strain

Like the original Mai Tai, the original Zombie is a little difficult to put together, so I included the original and an easier version.

Zombie (1934) by Don the Beachcomber
• 3/4 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 oz. Don's Mix (2 parts grapefruit juice, 1 part cinnamon-infused sugar syrup)
• 1/2 oz Falernum
• 1 1/2 oz. Lowndes Jamaican rum
• 1 1/2 oz. gold Puerto Rican rum
• 1 oz. 151-proof Demerara rum
• Dash Angostura bitters
• 6 drops Herbsaint or Pernod
• 1 tsp. Grenadine
• 6 oz. crushed ice
• Put all into blender, with ice last. Blend for five seconds.
• Pour into glass and garnish with mint sprig.

Zombie (1947) by Trader Vic’s
• 1 oz Jamaican Rum
• 2 oz Puerto Rican Rum
• 1/2 oz 151 Demerara Rum
• 1 oz Orange Curacao
• 1 oz Lemon
• 1 oz Orange Juice
• 1/2 oz Grenadine
• 1 dash Pernod
• Mix in a mixing glass with a large piece of ice
• Stir well and pour over cracked ice

Hopefully you’ll get some enjoyment out of it. Go to the party store, pick up some cheap leis (hehehe cheap leis), download some surf rock, and invite a couple of friends over.  Extra coolness points if anyone shows up in a grass skirt.