Category: Travel

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Rooftop Bars in Healdsburg

We tried a couple of the rooftop bar/restaurants in Healdsburg with mixed results.

First was Roof 106, connected The Matheson that’s on the ground floor, situated off Healdsburg’s central plaza but due to other buildings and the well grown trees there isn’t much in the way of a view. Our dinner was light leaning, a very nice hummus plate and some sushi hand rolls that neither of us loved.

The cocktails at Roof 106 were a lot better, though. I absolutely loved the Modern Margarita using clarified lime, so well rounded with a rich mouthfeel. I went off menu for a “shaken lime daiquiri with Panama Pacific rum” but the bill stated that the just okay daiquiri was made with Paranubes rum. Oops. Mrs. Mai Tai got a good one with a pumpkin spiced whiskey sour served up.

“View” of the Plaza

The Rooftop on top of the modern Harmon Guest House hotel offered a more traditional and open air rooftop bar. We were seated by a fire fit but could see that tables along the perimeter of the restaurant and lounge had a great view of Healdsburg’s central business district. We had some Riccota Doughnuts with berry compote that were delicious.

Drinks were pretty good at The Rooftop, including an Espresso-Tini that Mrs. Mai Tai thought was one of the best she’s had. I had the Cozy Bear, a Whiskey Sour made with Agave Nectar that was also quite good. We felt the service here was outstanding as well.

Great drinks at The Rooftop at Harmon Guest House
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Lo & Behold – Craft Cocktails in Healdsburg

We were in Healdsburg for the weekend and visited bar and restaurant Lo & Behold a couple times. There’s a nice interior with a large patio out back with shade cloth and heaters in the evening. The staff here are friendly and we liked the food and cocktails.

Birds & the Beez and Chi-Chi

One item in their menu is the “World’s Best Vodka Soda” which I found interesting in that I’ve always viewed this cocktail as a weird phenomenon. I like the taste of alcohols but appreciate that others don’t, but why mix it with flavorless soda water? Because it’s low calorie, seemed to be the consensus. But I ordered it anyway and then replayed the scene from “Elf”. To me it tasted like a crappy glass of Vodka Soda, but it apparently it’s the best.

We had better luck with our other cocktails. The cocktail of the week was a Chi-Chi, sweet like you’d expect but with bitters to give it a little twist. The Figgy Smalls was on special and also nice.

Fifty Shades and Figgy Smalls

I tried a couple Bourbon cocktails. The Witching Hour didn’t have the heavier mouthfeel I was expecting but did taste nice and the Manhattan riff called Fifty Shades was very good.

Our two favorites were Can’t Stop Won’t Stop with KōHana Rum, gin, basil, and aquafaba. Definitely well-balanced. The Birds & the Beez featured lavender and hibiscus and was totally refreshing.

Definitely worth checking out in downtown Healdsburg.

Witching Hour
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Hawaiian Airlines “Signature” Mai Tai

Looking at the menu of cocktails on our Hawaiian Airlines flight back home I could see that the Daiquiri, Aviation, and Old Fashioned were from well-known ready-to-drink cocktail suppliers. But the Mai Tai, not listed as being from either On the Rocks or from Kō Hana. You’d think the “Signature” Mai Tai would be something different, but in the back of my mind I guessed it would be from one of the brands already on the menu. That wouldn’t be a bad thing, since both On the Rocks and Kō Hana Mai Tais are pretty good RTD Mai Tais.

So, I ordered the Mai Tai and it was… On the Rocks.

Not sure why Hawaiian Airlines can’t just say this, but you could do far worse for an airplane cocktail.

Update

We were told by a reader that Hawaiian Airlines is in the process of switching from On the Rocks to Kō Hana, which explains the ambiguity as they wind down inventory.

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Kō Hana Distillery on O’ahu

One of the highlights of the Tiki in Waikiki weekend event was a tour of the Kō Hana rum distillery in Waipahu. We took comfortable buses our about an hour out of Waikiki and were greeted by the friendly folks from Kō Hana.

The tour includes four components, with about ten minutes in each spot. Our group started with the distilling area with the pot and column stills, where we learned about how they take the wash and turn it into fine Hawaiian rum. Our next stop was the aging room where we saw that some of Kō Hana’s expressions are aged in a variety of barrels including a few made with native Hawaiian wood. There’s a lot more capacity in that aging room, where I hope we’ll get even longer aged expressions of Kō Hana rum in the future.

We also learned about the sugar cane and the dozens of varietals that Kō Hana is using. These varietals are on the grounds of the distillery for reference, but the farms are on the north end of O’ahu. At each stop the experts in each field were available for detailed questions about Kō Hana’s production process. A breezy tour for rum newbies and super cool for the rum nerds to dig into the details.

The last stop was the tasting room where we got to sample three Kō Hana expressions: the unaged Kea, the aged Koho, and the Kokoleka which is made with Kō Hana rum along with pure cacao and raw honey. This liqueur is bottled at 30% ABV and Mrs. Mai Tai was such a big fan that we walked home with a bottle. There’s also samples of Kō Hana’s fine bottled cocktails and some other branded items available for purchase.

Kō Hana is becoming one of my favorite rums thanks to the myriad excellent cocktails I’ve been having lately that are made with this fine spirit. I honestly don’t love their unique square bottles but they’re quite distinctive on the shelf and traveled well in our suitcase.

Big thanks to the team Kō Hana who were super informative and also provided us with a great deal of hospitality during our visit. Mahalo, team.

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Tiki in Waikiki Recap

Mrs. Mai Tai and I had a great time at the second and half annual Tiki in Waikiki weekender this past weekend. This was our first time at the event, which is produced by Angelina Khan and Noa Laporga of Skull & Crown Trading Co. fame. There were quite a few volunteers who helped with the event, including Adrian Eustaquio who served as MC for most of the events. Sylvia Flores was also omnipresent and also gave us some great tips for things to do in the city.

Friday recap: opening ceremony and tiki vendors at the International Market Place, followed by delicious cocktails from Skull & Crown in the Don the Beachcomber treehouse. First time in decades to have exotic drinks in the treehouse! There was an off-premise event in Chinatown, but we enjoyed the room party thrown by Michael and Holly at the host hotel White Sands.

Saturday recap: fab seminars from Adrian covering the Tiki Ti and Martin Cate’s about Hawaiian tourism, followed by a pool party at the White Sands. Then a bus ride up to Kō Hana rum distillery for a tour and a luau party. We enjoyed the Hawaiian food and especially the musical acts including Thomas Mackay and Vibra Cubana. But we were truly impressed by local favorite Starr Kalahiki who’s really a fabulous singer and entertainer.

Kō Hana rum distillery

Sunday recap: truly incredible seminar from DeSoto Brown, then bartender competition in the International Market Place courtyard. We then were bussed to a theater to see a test screening of the Donn of Tiki documentary. We thought this film about Don the Beachcomber was outstanding. Then we finished the evening with another catered evening in the patio behind Skull & Crown including cocktails from Skull & Crown and also Doc Parks. Sunday also featured a silent auction to raise money for Maui, organized by Chase Samson. I won the tickets to Tiki Oasis 2024!

What a magical weekend! Thanks again to Noa, Angelina, and all the support team.

Treehouse Cocktails
Pool Party at the White Sands Hotel
Doc Parks
Angelina and Noa from Skull & Crown
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Rum Runner at Margaritaville Mall of America

While Mrs. Mai Tai spent some quality time with the retail stores, I took another opportunity to relax at Margaritaville. Having tried a Margarita the day before I thought it would be an opportune time to try a rum cocktail. I remembered seeing the Rum Runner on the menu the day before so I ordered it without ever looking at the menu.

The bartender seemed to be far from relaxed but made the cocktail. It was served over ice and incorporated the berry and banana flavors the cocktail is famous for, and it was actually pretty good. The rums used were not very assertive but at the same time this wasn’t too sweet either.

I looked at the menu finally and couldn’t find the Rum Runner in the Boat Drinks section. I finally spotted it in the Frozen drink section – which reminded me that this was a cocktail that was originally served blended. And then I saw that this cocktail is supposed to be made with Myers’s Jamaica Rum and Cruzan 134. So, rums that are quite a bit more assertive! I asked the Bartender for another served frozen according to the description.

Frozen Rum Runner

It’s always interesting to see a bartender in scramble mode, and this was most certainly the case here – looking here and there and up and down for the rums. I guess they don’t make them according to the menu, or this guy was a newbie. But soon enough a blended Rum Runner appeared.

The frozen version actually wasn’t quite a flavor bomb, though was more so after I mixed in the Cruzan 134 float. Frozen drinks often aren’t quite as sweet, the same as solid vs. melted ice cream. Nonetheless, it was quite reasonable and got the job done. I appreciated that the banana flavor came through quite nicely.

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Perfect Margarita at Margaritaville, Mall of America

That’s the cocktail name, not a description. The Perfect Margarita is as close to craft as they get at Margaritaville, the themed restaurant chain named from Jimmy Buffett’s most famous song. It is described as “Margaritaville Gold and Silver Tequilas, Margaritaville Triple Sec, Orange Curaçao and lime juice served on the rocks… for margarita aficionados only” though that lime juice is bottled and not fresh. I always order without salt and appreciated that at least this wasn’t blended.

Was this perfect? No, though it was a pretty nice break from the shopping and all the people in the mall. The tequilas used here are fairly mild, which is just fine by me.