jamaican rum | Modern Tiki

Bitter Strawberry Mai Tai

We always love a classic Mai Tai, but the recipe can also be a great foundation to build other drinks on. The Bitter Mai Tai is a kind of modern classic, adding a generous dose of Campari to a mai tai foundation. The result is a cocktail that is still…

Artichoke Hold

As much as we love tiki, we don't limit ourselves to just one category of drink. One glance at our bar will tell you that we love everything from amaro to tequila, though it's true that the rum collection dwarfs the other categories, and we can make a drink for…

Foul Weather Friend

We have a nice collection of Trader Vic's cookbooks - both cocktail and food books - and every time we flip through the pages, it seems like we discover something we haven't tried before. Last week was on the rainy side here in So Cal, so naturally the Four Weather…

Small Batch Fish House Punch

Fish House Punch is a great party drink, but we don't think that you need to wait until you're entertaining to treat yourself to some. Most recipes for Fish House Punch make anywhere from 8 - 24 servings and, even if you don't mind having a fridge full of leftovers, that…

Tai One On

A simple daiquiri is a great base for playing with new rums and new sweeteners. It's such a straightforward drink that a single change can have a big impact and it's fun (and delicious) to see the difference one substitution makes. You can always use a more complicated cocktail -…

Army Navy Grog

The Army Navy is a classic gin cocktail made with lemon, orgeat and angostura bitters. We had a good one a few weeks back at the Normandie Club in Koreatown a few weeks back, but as orgeat becomes more popular even at non-tiki bars, you'll start to see this drink pop…

Berried Treasure

There aren't a great number of berry tiki drinks out there (though there are quite a few innovated or recorded by one) and we wouldn't say that it's an essential tiki flavor. That being said, there is no reason that berries can't be incorporated into a tiki cocktail because they go fabulously…

The Cobra Effect

Given that we just added some new falernum to our collection, we were especially pleased to see a feature dedicated to falernum in our most recent issue of Imbibe Magazine. The magazine included a trio of cocktails that derived a lot of their flavor from falernum, yet were entirely different. It inspired us to do…

After the Luau

The other day, we made a caramelized pineapple syrup by cooking chunks of pineapple on the stovetop with a little bit of sugar, then combining that with more sugar and water to make it into a usable syrup. The syrup was good, but after a little bit of experimentation, we decided that adding some…