This is my take on a Fog Cutter, incorporating Passionfruit Syrup and an orange liqueur to replace some of the juice elements. Clearly influenced by another all-time gin classic, the Saturn.
Fog of Saturn 1 oz Lime Juice ⅔ oz Orgeat (Latitude 29) ¼ oz Passionfruit Syrup (Liber) ¼ oz Cointreau 1½ oz London Dry Gin (Beefeater) 2 dash Orange Bitters Shake with ice and float 1½ oz Cream Sherry (Harvey’s Bristol Cream)
Some might object to the amount of sherry being used here, but to me I love the combination of the sherry with the tropical elements and the gin.
Ran into local tikiphiles Amanda and Jill, along with their friend Megan, at Dr. Funk last night for the Traditional Tiki Tuesday with DJ Ship Rex. What a hoot of an evening, thanks to Rex’s upbeat vintage tunes and plenty of great cocktails from the good doctor. Justin and crew really did a great job with the drinks and service.
The rum pictured is The Funk, a 100 proof unaged Jamaica rum. I had this a few years back and didn’t love it but it suited me better this time. Plus a Mai Tai which is only $12 all day Tuesday. Gotta love it.
The Funk on a Rock$12 Happy Hour Pricing all Day Tuesday
It has been a minute since we ventured north to Petaluma to visit their excellent tiki bar, Kapu. We really enjoyed the scene inside, including a totally fantastic music playlist that incorporated exotica (including some deep cut Don Tiki tracks), surf, 60s pop, garage, Hawaiian, and Latin. The decor remains immersive and our service was outstanding.
We went for dinner and enjoyed the food we ordered, though wish the menu was a little bit larger and had some more obvious vegetarian offerings. The Poke Bowl was very filling and can be ordered with rice, wonton chips, or both. We really liked it, as well as the Pork Lumpia that had a lot of flavor.
Being a tiki bar in a wine town, there are some cocktail nods that work well here that might turn off some purists. The presence of slushy machines could be a red flag for cocktail snobs, but Kapu’s Lava Flow was really popular during our visit. Meanwhile, the Mai Tai has plenty of flavor but since it leans a touch sweet it means it’s quite approachable. We loved the creamy Pearl Diver and spice leaning Jasper’s Punch with plenty of Jamaica rum flavor.
The staff at Kapu were super friendly and the hospitality approach was fully in view when there was a small issue with the availability of one of the menu items. They totally addressed the issue with aplomb. Kapu is a real gem and a noteworthy destination for anyone seeking a high quality tiki bar.
Whenever I get a new bottle of rum, I always make a Mai Tai with it. It doesn’t matter if it’s expensive or cheap, or even if the rum isn’t really intended to be used for that cocktail. Sometimes you find things out about the rum when you taste in the Mai Tai format, along with the lime and sweeteners that serve to provide a foundation for the cocktail.
Such was the case with the new Hamilton Breezeway Blend, named in honor of Spike Marble’s Spike’s Breezeway Cocktail Hour channel on YouTube. Ed Hamilton put together this blend and it is similar to rums such as Probitas which blend a lighter style rum along with a funky rum from Jamaica. In this case, the base of the Breezeway Blend is Hamilton White Stache, an 87 proof white rum with distillate mostly from Trinidad but also some from Guyana and the Dominican Republic. That’s combined with a smaller proportion of Hamilton Pot Still Blonde from Jamaica, which is based on a couple Worthy Park distillates that are aged 1-2 years in New York. Blonde has a ton of flavor even at 45% ABV is my favorite Hamilton rum expression.
The Breezeway Blend is being positioned rightly so as a flavorful Daiquiri rum, where light leaning rum is expected. The Mai Tai traditionally wants to use heavier and bolder rums, but I’ll be damned if the 85 proof Breezeway Blend doesn’t make for a really fine Mai Tai. This leans lighter, of course, but there’s plenty of funky Jamaican flavor and sometimes you want something that’s just a little easier to drink.
In many ways, this reminds me of what Trader Vic did when he brought the Mai Tai to Hawai’i. That original Hawaiian Mai Tai wasn’t made with long aged Jamaica rum, but used inexpensive dark Jamaican rums such as Myers’s and combined it with a light Puerto Rican so that it would be easier for tourists to drink.
Heard about Chinola‘s new Mango Liqueur on the Make & Drink YouTube channel and I can honestly say this Mango Daiquiri is a delight. Very fruity that leans subtly sweet with just a bit of tart aftertaste from the lime and liqueur. Really nice, and worked equally well with both Havana Club 3 and also Trader Vic’s White Rum.
Chinola Mango Daiquiri 1 oz Chinola Mango Liqueur 1 oz light rum ¾ oz lime Jjuice ½ oz simple syrup Shake with ice and strain.
You might go a little tad heavy on the simple syrup but overall I was quite impressed.
Congrats to San Diego’s Bali Hai Restaurant, a longtime institution located on scenic Shelter Island. The venue’s infamous Mai Tai is known to be extraordinarily potent, advertised as not being made with any juice. It’s basically rum in a glass with little splashes of traditional Mai Tai ingredients.
The 3 millionth Mai Tai was recently sold at Bali Hai, which has a ticker inside the restaurant showing how many they’ve sold. Quite a milestone for such a noteworthy entrant in the lore of the Mai Tai.
People often ask how this is made, so we present the recipe that tastes like the real thing.
Bali Hai Mai Tai ½ oz Sweet and Sour Mix (or ¼ oz Lemon Juice and ¼ oz Simple Syrup) ¼ oz Orgeat ¼ oz Triple Sec 2½ oz Cruzan Light Rum 2½ oz Coruba Dark Jamaican Rum Shake with ice
South San Francisco’s Hula Hoops recently introduced a tiki passport / cocktail checklist. This tiki bar and restaurant has been doing Hawaiian food and fine cocktails for over five years, with the quality of the cocktails being far better than you’d expect for a suburban location that’s more restaurant than bar. They started strong with a couple Doc Parks cocktails and the Buz-Tai from local luminary Buz Deadwax, along with cocktails that pair well with the food offering such as the Ube Martini.
The Tiki Passport is a checklist of 15 cocktails, including the aforementioned Buz-Tai and two other Mai Tais. Plus some tiki favorites and a few that lean creamy such as the Coco Banana. Once you complete all 15 you get a Hula Hoops branded King Kong mug that includes a basketball carrying Wahine that’s a nod to the venue’s logo. The mug is made by Tiki Farm and looks pretty nice as long as gorilla mugs are your thing. You can see a version of this mug in Hula Hoops’ tiki room where it was made into a lamp.
The Lilikoi Tai is pretty great and nicely balanced, if you like passionfruit cream topping on your Mai Tai. Certainly better than the famed Monkeypod Mai Tai since the topping at Hula Hoops is sweeter.
Hula Hoops seems to be doing very well with business since it has been busy every time I’ve visited the last couple years, especially for brunch on the weekends. Reservations are recommended.
