The 6 Best Tiki Drinks Every Guy Should Know How to Make

Even if you only have a limited knowledge of the cocktail world, you probably have some idea about tiki-style drinks. For the uninitiated, a tiki bar is known for its tropical décor, often consisting of over-the-top interpretations of Polynesian and other island cultures. A specific set of tiki drinks typically adorn the menus, and are sipped by bar patrons in rooms adorned with tiki statues, tiki cocktail glasses, palm trees, and a lot of bamboo.

While the décor and ambiance are important to the bar style, the tiki drinks are what draw people in. There’d be no reason to make a tiki bar if you didn’t serve classic drinks like the mai tai, jungle bird, rum runner, and painkiller. These island-inspired mixed drinks are often made with a rum base and are usually colorful, loaded with tropical fruit flavors, and garnished with flowers and even more tropical fruits like pineapples and cherries.

While you can find a tiki bar or two in major cities around the world, its history can be traced back to two specific innovators. Inspired by the Polynesian culture, a man named Donn Beach opened the first tiki bar, Don the Beachcomber, in Hollywood in the 1930s. Another man, Victor J. Bergeron, opened a bar called Trader Vic’s in Los Angeles in 1938. This is where he invented arguably the most popular tiki drink: the mai tai.

When air travel became more popular in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, more people were able to travel to islands like Hawaii. This enthusiasm for island culture led to a rise in tiki bar popularity in the continental United States.

The style’s popularity has waned at times over the years. During its most recent resurgence starting in the 2010s, there have been calls to abolish the tiki bar for its cultural appropriation, declarations of a golden age of tiki, and explanations on ways to create a new tiki culture that puts a closer spotlight on its past and inspirations.

Over the decades, tiki has changed but never fully gone away. Especially the sense of escapism that tiki bars and tiki drinks evoke. They are sweet and boozy, and make you feel like you’re in a tropical paradise with your feet in the sand (if only until you finish your drink).

Arguably the most popular tiki cocktail, the mai tai is made with rum, lime juice, orgeat syrup, and Curaçao liqueur. It has a boozy, sweet, tropical fruit flavor. The mai tai was invented in 1944 by the aforementioned Victor J. Bergeron at his bar Trader Vic’s. As the story goes, he made the drink for some colleagues who were visiting from Tahiti. They loved the drink, and it became a mainstay at the bar.

Preperation: Add the white rum, lime juice, orange Curaçao, and orgeat syrup to an ice-filled shaker. Shake vigorously to combine. Strain the liquid into a glass. Float dark rum on the top.

The first navy grog recipe from the 1700s was just rum with some water to help proof it down. Eventually, an updated version featuring three different rums, honey syrup, lime juice, grapefruit juice, and club soda was sold at both Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic’s. It’s well-known for its high-octane, boozy, sweet flavor profile. When it was first created, this drink was so high in alcohol that there was a limit to how many cocktails guests could order before they were cut off.

Preparation: Add the white rum, dark rum, demerara rum, honey syrup, lime juice, and grapefruit juice to an ice-filled shaker. Shake vigorously to combine. Strain the liquid into a rocks glass. Top with club soda.

Made with rum, banana liqueur, blackberry liqueur, grenadine, orange juice, and pineapple juice, the rum runner seems to only exists because a bartender needed to clean out some extra ingredients. Named for the Prohibition-era rum runners, this drink was allegedly first made by a bartender named John Elber at the Holiday Isle Tiki Bar on Islamorada in the Florida Keys, who randomly grabbed excess ingredients he assumed would taste well together.

Preparation: Add light rum, navy strength rum, pineapple juice, orange juice, banana liqueur, blackberry liqueur, and grenadine to an ice-filled shaker. Shake vigorously to combine. Strain into an ice-filled glass.

This dark rum, pineapple juice, orange juice, and cream of coconut-based drink is a take on the classic piña colada. This drink was created in the 1970s by a bartender named Daphne Henderson at the Soggy Dollar Bar in the British Virgin Islands. While you can use any rum you prefer, the drink is traditionally made with Pusser’s Rum, a navy-strength rum. The brand even trademarked the name for the cocktail in the 1980s.

Preparation: Add the Pusser’s rum, cream of coconut, orange juice, and pineapple juice to an ice-filled shaker. Shake to combine. Strain into an ice-filled glass. Garnish it with a pineapple wedge and grated nutmeg.

This tiki drink can be traced back to the 1970s at the Kuala Lumpur Hilton. It was created by a bartender named Jeffrey Ong at the Aviary Bar (hence the drink’s name) located inside the hotel. This sweet, lightly bitter, boozy drink is made with blackstrap rum, Campari, pineapple juice, freshly squeezed lime juice, and simple syrup.

Preparation: Add blackstrap rum, pineapple juice, Campari, lime juice, and simple syrup to an ice-filled shaker. Shake it vigorously to combine. Strain the liquid into an ice-filled glass. Garnish it with a slice of pineapple.

Like many well-known tiki-style cocktails, the zombie can be traced back to one of the originators of the style. Donn Beach created this drink featuring high-proof rum, dark rum, white rum, apricot brandy, lime juice, and pineapple juice in 1934 at Don the Beachcomber in Hollywood. It gained popularity in 1939 when it was sold at the World’s Fair in New York City.

Preparation: Add the white rum, dark rum, apricot liqueur, and orange juice to an ice-filled shaker. Shake to combine. Strain it into an ice-filled glass. Top it with high-proof rum. Garnish it with an orange slice.