Tiki History

Question 1

Mai Tai

Answer 1

Created by Victor Bergeron (Trader Vic) at Trader Vic’s tiki bar/restaurant in Oakland, CA in 1944.

The original recipe was said to be 2 oz Wray and Nephew 17-year Rum, .5 oz Lime juice, .5 oz Orange Curaçao, .25 Orgeat, and .25 oz Rock Candy sugar, then garnished with half a spent lime shell (upside down) and a Mint Sprig to resemble an island. It was named after the Tahitian word for “good.” It is said that Victor Bergeron’s Tahitian friend, Carrie Guild, cried out, “Maita’I roa ae” (meaning “very good” or “out of this world”) the first time she tasted it.

Note: Trader Vic’s rival, Don the Beachcomber, claimed to have created it (or the drink that it was based on, which he claimed Trader Vic reverse engineered) in 1933.

Question 2

Saturn

Answer 2

Created by California bartender J. “Popo” Galsini while working at the Outrigger in Laguna Beach, California. He won the International Bartender’s Association World Championship in 1967 with the cocktail.

The drink was seemingly lost until Jeff “Beachbum” Berry found the recipe printed on the side of a glass he purchased in a San Diego thrift store in the early 1990s.

Question 3

Queen’s Park Swizzle

Answer 3

Created at the Queen’s Park Hotel in Port of Spain, Trinidad in the 1920s.

In 1946, Trader Vic declared this drink to be “the most delightful form of anesthesia given out today.”

Original recipe called for 3 oz of Dark Rum.

Question 4

Jungle Bird

Answer 4

Created at the Aviary Bar at the Kuala Lumpur Hilton, Malaysia in 1978.

Note: The classic recipe called for .75 oz Campari.

Question 5

Painkiller

Answer 5

Created in the 1970s at the Soggy Dollar Bar at White Bay on the island of Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands.

This drink is trademarked by Pusser’s Rum!

Question 6

Pearl Diver

Answer 6

Created by Donn Beach (a.k.a. Don the Beachcomber) in 1937

Question 7

Zombie

Answer 7

Created by Donn Beach at his restaurant, Don the Beachcomber, in Hollywood, CA in 1934.

It was popularized soon afterwards at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

Original Recipe: 1.5 oz Jamaican Rum, 1.5 oz Puerto Rican Rum, 1 oz 151-proof Demerara Rum, .75 oz Lime juice, .75 oz Donn’s Mix (.5 oz Grapefruit juice & .25 oz Cinnamon syrup), .5 oz Falernum, .25 oz Grenadine, 4 dashes Absinthe, 1 dash Angostura bitters.