The following is an extended version of the article that appears in our August 2021 issue.
The Peeba from The Jungle Room (Photo by Brooke Jerman, courtesy The Jungle Room)
What do you call a former bootlegging speakeasy operator turned post-Prohibition bar owner?
If it's Earnest Gantt, perhaps “restaurateur,” or even the “Godfather of Tiki.” In 1933, the New Orleans native legally changed his name to Donn Beach and debuted his original Don the Beachcomber bar in Hollywood. Slinging tropical rum-based drinks, Gantt helped birth a whole new method of mixology.
Although Tiki cocktails thrive on the flourish, the flamboyant and even the garnish, at the heart of the style is an effort to showcase the diversity of rum and the richness of island fruits.
Tiki or otherwise, mixology has always drawn upon and evolved through local flavor and culture. After the end of World War II Tiki cocktails enjoyed another surge as veterans brought home experiences and ideas from their time in the Pacific.
It would be easy to slap the label of cultural appropriation on some elements of Tiki, and it wouldn’t be wrong, but Tiki as an idea sprang from a nostalgic escape from the gray frenzy of industrial life, and it still offers that.
Peeba Cocktail
Adan Velis, Sabai/The Jungle Room
While they’re usually made with rum, Tiki drinks don’t have to be. At Sabai’s Jungle Room, Beverage Director Adan Velis draws upon his Hispanic heritage to create nontraditional Tiki drinks like the Peeba, which features mezcal, chocolate and habanero tincture.
Though he creates plenty of easy-drinking classics like the Painkiller, Velis takes any opportunity he can to feature mezcal and interplay his own cultural flavors into Tiki sets. Try his smoky, spicy play on the Mai Tai, whose name means “crazy” in Thai.
1 ounce Meteoro mezcal
3/4 ounce Aperol
1/2 ounce house orgeat (recipe below)
1/2 ounce pineapple juice
1/2 ounce lime juice
2 dashes Fee Bros Aztec Chocolate bitters
1 dash Scrappy’s Firewater tincture
Combine ingredients in a shaker. Add ice and shake. Strain over crushed ice. Garnish with a dehydrated lime wheel.
For the orgeat
In a saucepan over low heat combine:
16 ounces fresh almond milk
1 1/2 cups sugar
Stir until incorporated. Remove from heat and add:
3 ounces cognac/brandy
1/4 ounce almond extract
1/2 teaspoon rose water
Whiskey Colada
Zach Hodson, The Lilly Pad
The Pina Colada isn’t technically a Tiki libation, but Zach Hodson found it was the best way to spotlight Richmond-based Reservoir Distillery for his island-inspired menu at The Lilly Pad. The Whiskey Colada joins the spiced spirit with coconut and bitters during a waterside experience — the essential spirit at the heart of Tiki.
At the start of the pandemic, Hodson found himself adrift and jobless along with many of his service-industry colleagues.
But The Lilly Pad in Henrico was still open with its sprawling patio on the river — earning its nickname as a “COVID refugee camp” for service talent. Hodson took the job as head bartender and started shaping the cocktail menu around classic Tiki favorites and tropical variations to play up the paradise-like setting on the James.
He showcases local ingredients whenever possible, whether a blackberry simple syrup from a nearby farm or spirits from a local distillery.
“I want to make things as craft as I can,” he says, “while keeping in mind we have to make 400 cocktails in a night.”
1 3/4 ounces Reservoir Hunter & Scott bourbon
3/4 ounce guava puree
3/4 ounce Coco Lopez coconut cream
3/4 ounce pineapple juice
3/4 ounce lime juice
Combine ingredients in a shaker. Add ice and shake vigorously. Pour into a tiki vessel. Garnish with half an orange wheel and a cherry.
Man in the Yellow Dress
Josephine Castro, Little Nickel
Rum is one of the most versatile spirits, and when Josephine Castro of Little Nickel wanted to whip up a beverage incorporating bell pepper, she soon discovered that cachaca — a grassy, nutty Brazilian rum — paired perfectly. She mixes it with pineapple and yellow chartreuse in a presentation akin to the classic Zombie.
1 1/2 ounces Cachaca 51
1/2 ounce Don Q silver rum
1/4 ounce Strega
1/2 ounce yellow bell pepper juice (1/3 yellow bell pepper, muddled)
3/4 ounce pineapple juice
1/2 ounce lemon
2 dashes Boston bitters
2 dashes orange citrate bitters
Muddled fresno pepper
Fresno pepper slices
Combine ingredients in a shaker. Add ice and shake vigorously. Pour into a Tiki cup or collins glass. Garnish with a fresh slice of fresno pepper.
Paul Blumer is a writer and emeritus craft bartender.
