As you well know, I host quite a few dinner and cocktail parties throughout the year. During summer, rum and Tiki cocktails are the order of the day. The issue is, of course, that many Tiki cocktails are a bear to make. Case in point is the Zombie, which requires 10–13 ingredients depending on the recipe. Others, like the Painkiller, call for Creme of Coconut, which easily separates if you don’t shake the bottle every once in a while. I love these drinks, but making them for the masses (friends, Romans, countrymen) is extremely difficult territory, made more so by batching, which requires extra careful attention to balance the flavors.

Into this breach steps a great book — Easy Tiki by Chloe Frechette. The purpose of the book is to elaborate on Tiki culture and its origins, re-spec classic recipes so that you don’t need the standard plethora of obscure ingredients to make them, and finally, to offer some modern takes on Tiki. The book’s first half on Tiki culture and its origins is an easy read and a great gateway to understanding exactly what Tiki is and why those immersed in the culture do what they do with drinks and in life. The book is well worth your time and, in my opinion, the standard if you are a beginner to Tiki drinks and culture, the latter of which she details clearly and simply without getting overly bogged down in the minutiae.

One of the modern recipes she offers is Paradise Lost. It’s unique in that the backbone of the drink is Vodka. This does two things. The first is that it brings Tiki into your home at the lowest price possible. Foundational Tiki rums are often expensive and not widely distributed. The other is that the Vodka allows the drink's tropical ingredients to shine. She attributes the drink to Kirk Estopinal and notes it was inspired by the Green Isaac Special, which uses Gin, itself created by cocktail historian Philip Greene. 

Let’s tip one. 

Chill your glass until frigid. This a shaken cocktail. Fill the small half of your tin with the ingredients sans garnish. Add ice to the tin and shake for 8–12 seconds. Strain over fresh shard or pebble ice. You could also use a drink mixer for around 5 seconds, then strain onto fresh ice. Add your mint garnish. Enjoy!

First, your vodka. I prefer grain vodka here over potato vodka. In general, I go with grain-based vodka for dessert or fruit-forward cocktails and potato vodka for savory cocktails (like a Dirty Martini or Tomatini). Vodka is, by law, supposed to be tasteless, and for the most part, that’s true. There is, however, a major difference in texture. Potato vodkas, to me, are more oily on the tongue — thicker and more viscous. This drink needs the crispness of the grain-based vodka.

This cocktail features pronounced nutty notes from both the sherry and the orgeat. Typically, standard orgeat is made from almonds. But you can make an orgeat from any nut. Experimenting here would be a good idea. You could also get a lot more nuttiness by using Amontillado or Oloroso sherry; just be aware that the drink will have a much richer profile. You could also get a dessert-style drink by using Creme of Coconut — that would, however, require a lot of tinkering with the lime and orgeat to balance the sour-sweet profile of the drink. The usual caveats apply with the lime — adjust to your desired profile. Be aware that the Fino Sherry (the driest of the lot) contains some acidity as well. I aim for balance.

After complaining about the number of ingredients required by Tiki cocktails, let’s make this one more complicated. I can confirm that using Bourbon here, especially a vanilla-forward bourbon, is fantastic. See the picture below for that drink. If you remember our Mint Juleps from Derby week, you’ll recall that coconut and Bourbon go pretty well together. The recipe below uses Black Draft Distilling’s bourbon from Martinsburg, West Virginia, along with some Allspice Dram to give you a hint of what to expect as September looms and temperatures cool off. Use a smoother, less spicy Bourbon for this one. And if you haven’t gotten to visit Black Draft, you really should. 

Prepare this the same as above. Make sure you have a big bouquet of mint — you want that on the nose as you take a sip. Let me know what you think in the comments if you try it out. 

This blog is, as ever, an opinionated take on drinks. 

See you next time at the Appalachian Speakeasy.