Professor Tiki

Were there other bars you used as "labs"?

The other place I learned from was a bar in LA called the Tiki-Ti. It was run by a guy named Ray Buhen, who was one of the original Don the Beachcomber bartenders in 1934, so he actually knew all of Don's recipes. So, when you go to the Tiki-Ti and order a drink you're actually ordering, more or less, one of the original Don the Beachcomber's drinks.

I got hold of all the Don the Beachcomber menus and descriptions of the drinks. I talked to bartenders and people who used to go there, and eventually I was able to reverse-engineer a lot of Don's drinks. After that, I was able to get hold of some of the recipe books and compare, contrast, and finalize. It was a long process.

I can imagine. And these are potent drinks. I have the feeling that a night of research could do some damage.

Who knows how many years I've taken off my life in the pursuit of history.

When you were cracking the recipe codes, did you come across any surprising ingredients?

Oh, yes. The two that really surprised me were "spices number two" and "spices number four". Number four was a cinnamon-infused sugar syrup that was the secret ingredient in the original zombie—that was a revelation. When you put it into a drink in the proportions indicated, you'd never in a million years identify the flavor. But it adds a complexity, an intriguing mystery.

"Spices number two" is a mixture of allspice and vanilla; that was something that I was just guessing at, but it tasted really good when I added it, so I just stuck with it. Again, it gives drinks a really intriguing taste, but never in a million years could you pick out what it was. There's a drink called the nui nui, which uses both number two and number four, and it's just an amazing drink. I've made that drink for tiki-themed dinners I've hosted in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and it's always knocked people out. It really was a lost drink; nobody knew how to make it. I found the recipe in one of the black bar books, and there was no way I could have done it without knowing what "spices number two" and "spices number four" were.

What does the nui nui taste like?

It's a lovely, floral, icy drink. You get cinnamon, vanilla, allspice, tanginess from the lime, a little sweetness from the orange, and then all these nice rums and a splash of bitters. It's a marvelous drink.

What is your favorite tiki drink?

Well, I have three. I've been drinking the original 1934 Don the Beachcomber zombie lately, probably because I'm so happy with myself for finally cracking the recipe. It's a great drink; the little addition of cinnamon mixed with grapefruit is brilliant.

But to my mind, the zombie is one of three culinary drinks that show just how far ahead of its time Don's was. Another is called the missionary's downfall, which is fresh mint, fresh pineapple, honey, lime, and rum, and you blend all that together with rum. It's truly the work of a bar chef. And I'm a huge fan of Don's navy grog, which uses lime, grapefruit, honey, soda, and three different rums blended together: a dry white Puerto Rican rum, a dark heavy-bodied Jamaican rum, and a smoky taste of a demerara. It is a perfect example of how they blended rums together to make an amazing taste.

Those sound great but not like drinks you could just head home and make on a whim. If you were to pare down a tiki bar for the home bartender, what would be the essential tools and ingredients?

Well, let's assume that you've already got the basics: a shaker, a juice squeezer, and a blender. You will need a very wide complement of measuring ingredients because you cannot free-pour with these drinks— there's so much going on in them, you have to be precise. Your measuring kit should start with an eye dropper and move up into measuring spoons, from one-eighth of a teaspoon to one-quarter of a teaspoon, half a teaspoon, and a tablespoon. You'll also need the usual jiggers—one ounce and one and a half ounces—and a very good ice crusher.

Then, of course, there are the ingredients. It is essential to use fresh fruit to make your juices, and you'll need a good stove and saucepan because you'll be making your own syrups.

Oh, and booze. You can get away with making the most of the great tropical drinks with five rums: a white Puerto Rican, a gold rum from the Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico, a dark Jamaican rum (Appleton makes a good one), a Martinique rhum agricole, and a demerara rum, which is a smoky rum from Guyana. With those five you can make a navy grog, a mai tai—all kinds of great drinks.

How important is glassware to the presentation of tiki drinks?

Glassware has always been a very big part of it all. Originally, most of these drinks were served in specialty glasses—snifters or tall glasses. But I do have a problem with ceramic tiki mugs. I collect them, and I have no problem with them as artifacts, but I don't like to drink from them. When you pour a cocktail into a tiki mug you lose the color, which is a major aspect of a drink. The more you see the drinks as culinary experiences, the more you want to see what you're drinking.

Have you experimented with flaming drinks?

Oh, sure. When I was a kid they just knocked me out. Now there are books that tell you how to do it, but when I started experimenting I was literally playing with fire.

There are two good ways to light a drink. One way is to take half a lime or lemon, scrape out all the fruit from the rind, and fill that with 151 proof rum. Then you float it in the center of the drink—this works only if you have a wide bowl or a widemouthed mug—and light that on fire. The rum will burn, but it's contained in its shell so it won't spill over into the drink. Another way is to cut a lemon, an orange, or a lime wheel, float it in a drink, and put a sugar cube on top of it. Then you douse the sugar cube in high-proof rum and light it. The sugar cube will burn nicely.

You also develop your own recipes, right? Are you working on anything interesting now?

Yes. I'm mostly a drink archaeologist, but the research process gives me all kinds of fun ideas for new drinks. I have about 30 new recipes that I've been playing with. For the past couple of years I've been doing events like Tales of the Cocktail, which is a big drink gathering in New Orleans, and tiki conventions, where I hold tropical-drink seminars.

The other great project I've been working on—and one of the reasons I've been coming up with new drinks—is a cocktail dinner where I work with a chef to come up with six courses and an original drink pairing for each dish. That has worked really well with tropical drinks because there are so many elements to them. No matter what the chef throws at you, you can come up with a drink that complements it.

What's one great pairing?

Drinks like the nui nui and the navy grog, which are heavy, spicy rum cocktails, pair really well with pork, which is a staple of Polynesian-themed meals. With a Polynesian- or Tahitian-style fish dish with a coconut sauce, you might try a drink like the one I call the restless native, which is a mix of coconut rum, crème de cacao, and lime. The coconut in the rum pairs up nicely with the coconut in the sauce, but the drink is tart, so it cuts the richness. Chefs are taking these cocktails seriously as something that can be served with the food as opposed to just poolside drinks.