Tiki Drink Manifesto

I’ve mentioned this article in the New York Times to a couple of people already; it’s a pretty interesting article about Tiki drinks.

It’s about a guy named Jeff Berry who has been called “the Indiana Jones of tiki drinks.” Basically Jeff’s position is that modern Tiki drinks are sugery and terrible but they don’t have to be and in fact originally they weren’t. He’s made it his life mission to track down the original drink recipes which tend to be more complex and better balanced in an effort to elevate the art of Tiki drinks.

Perhaps a bit of history is in order to put his quest in perspective. According to the NYT article (I’ve done no independent research on Tiki drinks) the Tiki drink movement took root in the 1930’s and lasted about forty years before sputtering out. It’s recently made a resurgence in the last ten years.

At the forefront of the original 1930’s movement was a man named Ernest Raymound Beaumont-Gantt, who (wisely) went by the mixologist name Donn Beach. Donn Beach is supposedly the original inventor of some of the most popular Tiki drinks and his concoctions took the country by storm. To quote:

“… Mr. Beach was a gifted mixologist, and his drinks were the real thing. His “Rum Rhapsodies” were elaborate concoctions that called for multiple brands of rum, fresh fruit juice, crushed ice, obscure syrups and esoteric ingredients like honey-butter mix.”

The only thing is Donn Beach also closely guarded his drink recipes. And not closely guarded his drink recipe like if you asked for the recipe he declined to tell you closely guarded. No, Donn Beach kept all of his drink recipes in code. According to Jeff Berry, “a recipe might say one half-ounce of number two, a dash of number four.”

Jeff learned that some of the bar staff kept their coded recipes black books and over the years he’s been able to acquire a few of them. He now spends his time trying to crack the codes. Jeff has frequented a bar that is run by the son and grandson of one of the original bar staff employed by Don Beach. By ordering drinks and attempting to watch and reverse engineer them he’s been able to figure out a couple of the code names for ingredients like “Golden Stack” (a particular brand of rum) and “Markeza” (that means passion fruit syrup).

In addition to ordering Tiki drinks in bars Jeff also does research by pouring over old cooking magazines and recipe books in the hopes of finding a recipe or two that Donn Beach did make public. If the same recipe happens to be in one of his coded black books he can use it as a Rosetta stone to further decode other drinks. It’s not all smooth sailing though:

“Mr. Berry’s own arrival at the Zombie recipe is convoluted. In 2002, he stumbled upon an old copy of “Barbecue Chef,” a cookbook self-published in 1950 by one Louis A. Spievak that contained a Zombie recipe supposedly given to Mr. Spievak by Donn Beach himself. Following the formula, which called for three kinds of rum, three kinds of juice and passion fruit syrup, Mr. Berry was pleased to discover a superb drink.

A few years later, he found another Donn Beach-sanctioned Zombie recipe — this one in a 1956 issue of the men’s magazine Cabaret. That recipe called for 11 ingredients, only five of them matching the Spievak formula. The drink was equally good but darker in color and heavier in body.

Then the story took one more twist. In 2005, Mr. Berry was given a little black book belonging to a Beachcomber waiter named Dick Santiago that dated to around 1937. The notebook contained a recipe for “Zombie Punch,” which was the drink’s original name. Mr. Berry concluded that the recipe was truly the original Zombie formula, and set about decoding an ingredient listed cagily as “Don’s Mix” (two parts grapefruit juice to one part cinnamon-infused sugar syrup, it turns out).”

So Jeff spends years trying to resurrect Tiki drink recipes. An interesting story no doubt….but is his effort worth it? There are a couple of “original” Tiki drink recipes included with the NYT’s article. Tune in tomorrow and I’ll discuss my experiences with one of them! (I’m sure you can’t wait)