If you can't get to a tropical
destination this summer, try sipping one of these
rum-injected drinks sure to transport you to the South
Seas.
They say that if you live long enough, history will repeat itself.
Unfortunately, this is true and probably means that many of us will
eventually have to save S&H Green Stamps, eat beef Wellington,
and use DOS again. (Sigh.) In the meantime, there are much more fun
ways to relive history.
Having once been a regular in the Captain's Cabin at the
now-defunct Trader Vic's in
San Francisco, for example, I've
recently rediscovered the restaurant's groovy L.A. sibling in Merv
Griffin's The Beverly Hilton Hotel. Last time anybody bothered to
count, the bar there boasted 75 tropical cocktails, including, of
course, Trader Vic Bergeron's timeless invention, the mai tai.
In fact, as a spotter of the latest socio-mixological trends, I
couldn't help noticing that the tiki gods are back with a
vengeance. Tiki bars are springing up like bamboo shoots during
monsoon season. My sources in the vintage garment trade tell me
that Hawaiian shirts are disappearing from thrift shops faster than
coconut bras at a Polynesian yard sale. Rattan recliners and
kerosene torches are turning backyards from Wilmington to Walla
Walla into sets from Gilligan's Island.
Rum is the most appropriate spirit for tiki drinks; its flavor
mixes beautifully with tropical fruit. Here are three very
different rums, matched with a trio of my signature cocktails.
MARTÍ MOJITO ($16)
New York spirits importer Joe Magliocco got interested in rum a few
years ago and decided to re-create a Cuban-style rum from the
pre-Castro era. In the
Dominican Republic, he managed to track down
distiller Ernesto Ugona, who made rums in
Cuba in the '50s and
'60s. Ernesto guided the production of this new brand, named for
José Martí, a hero of Cuba's battle for freedom from Spanish rule.
(During one of his periods of exile, Martí lived in New York for 15
years, but returned to Cuba and was killed in the battle of Dos
Rios, in 1895.)