Tropical and tiki drinks have a bad reputation for being too sweet, too kitschy, and too difficult to make with their combination of hard-to-find juices and esoteric liqueurs. But constructed of quality ingredients, and in proper proportion, they are among the most thrillingly delicious and culinary of all cocktails. Your extra effort will be rewarded.
Entrepreneurs Victor J. Bergeron (of Trader Vic fame) and Don the Beachcomber (born Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt) revolutionized cocktails, layering rums with tropical fruit juices and setting them in a Polynesian wonderland that brought happy hour to the beachfront. Down went the cocktail glass of the speakeasy sin dens, and up came the shapely hurricane of outdoor paradise.
Today there’s a tiki revival underway, with tropical drinks getting their proper due, thanks to writers like Jeff Berry (Beach Bum Barry’s Grog Log), and bars like Chicago’s Three Dots and a Dash or San Francisco’s Smuggler’s Cove.
More of a rum-induced, scantily-clad dream than a riff on a specific place, tiki’s Polynesian romance is caught up in the story of the Caribbean—hence the Navy Grogs and island drinks. We add to these a few food-friendly, must-know classics from the tropics and beyond that belong in your repertoire, including the Caipirinha (page 203) from Brazil and the Pisco Sour (page 199), so beloved in Peru and Chile.