Thursday Night Tiki Lounge
52 Drinks that Bring the Tropics Home
Jennifer Newens’s tiki cocktail guide Thursday Night Tiki Lounge includes drinks that are sweet, sour, strong, sometimes spicy, and mostly rum-based alongside gorgeous photographs.
The book begins with a short history of tiki’s boom after the Great Depression, its zenith in the 1950s, its fall, and its subsequent comeback in the early 2000s. The oft-referenced godfathers of tiki, Donn Beach of Don the Beachcomber bar and Vic Bergeron of Trader Vic’s, are placed in the context of a tiki tradition that pulls most from Polynesian and Caribbean traditions. Tropical fruit that can be found year-round stars in the text in concession to home mixologists, while the book’s early sections cover types of rum, mixing methods, glasses, garnishes, and hardware in thorough preparation for the recipes that follow.
Clear, attractive formatting makes it easy to move between reading and preparation, and each recipe is designed for a single drink. A quippy explanation prefaces each recipe and speaks to a drink’s origin. Sharp photographs incorporate bright wheels of lime, light condensation on glasses, juices in vivid colors, and an array of expressive tikiware.
The book also features recipes for homemade grenadine, cream of coconut, and unusual simple syrups to add to the mixologists’ repertoires. Traditional favorites including the Zombie, the Fog Cutter, the Bahama Mama, and Planter’s Punch run next to the Fat Sailor, the Missionary’s Downfall, and the Cobra’s Fang, set to become new favorites. Most of the cocktails are strongly boozy; all are fun for celebrating a Thursday night.
Beautiful to look at and delicious to drink, the recipes in Thursday Night Tiki Lounge will make a fun tropical addition to any bartending library.
Reviewed by
Camille-Yvette Welsch
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
