Tiki Drinks [Hardcover]

Tiki, a Polynesian term for carved wood amulets, figures and posts, first took hold after World War II when servicemen returned from the South Pacific, bringing home images of scantily clad natives and pounding drums that emblazoned the conformist 1950s culture.

While Tiki collectibles were once relegated to garage sales and flea markets, today’s trend has gone mainstream…and mass market. Macy’s East opened a decorated "Patio Luau" department complete with patterned plastic plates. On the other end of the island, Kmart, Savon Drugs and Home Depot sell tiki torches and figures for the yard. Ralph Lauren even sports a line of T-shirts with a wooden tiki idol ingrained with "Polo." For the ultimate in "Petiki," Bamboo Ben, who designs custom tiki bars, builds Polynesian-style dog huts and litter-box covers, complete with thatched canopy.

Of course, the craze has spread online with zines and sites featuring collectibles while eBay buyers haggle over mugs, recently paying $1,000 for one from Elvis Presley's movie Blue Hawaii. But a tiki mug means nothing unless it’s filled with a tropical drink topped off with a paper umbrella.

Author Adam Rocke stirs up seventy concoctions in Tiki Drinks, the definitive guide to mixing and shaking your way to paradise. Don’t know the difference between a pony and a jigger? The book offers simple tips on setting up a tiki bar including measurements, garnishes and liquors, and features recipes for old favorites like the Singapore Sling as well as some new additions like the Caicos Cooler.

Rocke, who also writes for Maxim and GQ, spent a year on Florida’s gulf coast, traveling to the islands and taking a "poll of the populars." Researching the local drinks was as much fun as writing about them, he recalls. "TIKI DRINKS is designed to bring the ocean to you if you can’t get to paradise."

Tiki artist and consummate hipster, Shag, provides the illustrations for Tiki Drinks. His clean, tight graphic style, reminiscent of '50s and '60s commercial art, has also been a hit with Time Magazine, Entertainment Weekly and Forbes. Shag recently expanded into gallery work, and his latest piece, the Madonna of Kahiki, is nothing less than, well, "shagadelic."

Why tiki, and why now? The culture is as much lifestyle as it is art, and its revival may be an antidote to the frantic pace of a wired generation seeking comfort from a primitive haven at home. Perhaps the trend reflects a desire for a simpler time, tinged with a nostalgia that author Dennis Coupland, who coined the term Generation X, first described as a longing for experiences we never had, a hunger to be part of a previous generation.

Or a thirst…Tiki is really about tiki bars serving up flaming cocktails, and Gen X doesn’t have a lock on the fad: a president or two has been known to partake in "Politiki." Richard Nixon, for example, used to escape to Trader Vic’s for some daytime tropical ambiance along with his favorite drink: the Navy Grog. (151 proof rum definitely packs a presidential punch.)

Many bamboo-thatched bars and tiki-toriums are vanishing, but TIKI DRINKS provides all that’s needed for spirit lovers of all generations to set up shop at home. So kick back, hang a light and sip a drink…it’s tiki time.