Exotic Rum Drinks Are Only Part Of The Criteria
When you’re ready for a tropical paradise vacation, all you have to do is go to your closest tiki bar.
After all, with exotic drinks and decor that mentally transports you to the South Pacific islands, the provide the perfect escape.
But what makes a great tiki bar? Here’s five criteria and it goes beyond the famous and exotic cocktails.
1.) Tiki Bars Have Great (And Strong) Rum Drinks
The main attraction of a tiki bar is its cocktails. In true tiki bars, you will find dozens of them – some have entire books that looks like a menu from the Cheesecake Factory – and they are strong.
Some of the classic tiki bar drinks are, of course, the Mai Tai (a base rum, symple syrup, orgeat syrup, Coraco and a big floater of dark rum), Navy Grog (three types of rum with lime and grapefruit juice plus bitters, club soda and guava nectar) and the scorpion (rum, brandy, orgeat and passion fruit syrup, lemon and orange juice) often served in a bowl with a flame in the center and large straws to share the drink.
2.) Tiki Bars Have Creative Rum Drinks With Crazy Names
You can’t have a great tiki bar without creative names for the drinks, ones like the Weeky Wacker, the Dead Recokoning (very pirate-ish), the Bender Ender, Drunken Monkey, Dr. No, Tide Ripper and a personal favorite, the Zombie. Most tiki bar drinks – about 90% of them – contain rum. Tiki bars also make cocktails with gin and vodka. Beer is sometimes served, but people don’t go to a tiki bar to drink beer.
3.) Tiki Bars Have Great Bartenders Who Know How To Make The Tiki Bar Drinks
Talk to tiki bar bartenders and they know a wide variety of drinks – tiki bars have extensive, multi-page menus of cocktails – and take great pride in making them to perfection.
4.) Tiki Bars Serve Drinks In Tiki Mugs
The drinks are just part of the presentation at a tiki bar, for those cocktails are often served in tiki mugs, a ceramic container that usually has the face of a tiki god or other character on it, or something creative like a fish or parrot. That, along with the actual cocktail is another big attraction of tiki bars.
5.) Tiki Bars Have Polynesian Decor
The real purpose of a tiki bar is to transport you to an island paradise, even if that paradise exists only in your mind. Tiki bars have Polynesian decor, with pretty much everything in wood, maybe a thatched roof like a tiki hut, tiki god statues, light fixtures that look like bloated blowfish and other tropical items.
BONUS: Tiki Bars Have Great A Tiki Crowd
An often overlooked element of a great tiki bar is the crowd. It has to have a tiki attitude and appreciate the drinks and atmosphere. Examples would be beach lovers and Jimmy Buffett fans.
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