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DRUNKEN TIKI NEWS 11/26/17, 3:00pm
Vietnam was the world’s first postmodern war and a landmark in visual storytelling. Today, in a post-postmodern age, the Tiki revival has, by all accounts, reached new visual heights. Now in its third wave, it comes re-packaged with a new paradigm of escapism and fantasy formed under the pressure of new technologies and the perils of contemporary social forces.
While the Tiki trend is here in full force with visually appealing cocktails and an emphasis on presentation, Tiki has also always been linked to a sense of danger and exoticism.
After opening his famous Don the Beachcomber restaurant in Hollywood in 1934, Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt (later changed to ‘Donn Beach’) became the original inventor of more than ninety exotic tropical rum concoctions, including the infamous Zombie. The latter is the perfect example of how tropical mixology itself held a kind of intellectual authority over the mythical allure of Polynesia within Western culture.
No one knew how their drink was made, what was in their glass…these drinks had a life-changing power over you. They were going to transform you.
No one knew how their drink was made, what was in their glass…these drinks had a life-changing power over you. They were going to transform you.
The Tiki era hit its peak in 1955 (the same year America went to war in Vietnam*) to around 1960; following its Baby Booming inception, and subsequent Seventies backlash, Tiki was pretty much dormant throughout the 1970s, with the fall of Saigon occurring on 30 April, 1975. Since Tiki shared five years with Vietnam (during its peak), Drunken Tiki is paying homage to this classic era with a new series of specially-themed original rum drinks designed to capture the mood and essence of the time.
Rather than solely trying to embrace Vietnamese flavors in a glass, we instead tried to capture the character of the period by creating cocktails that conjure up thoughts of rain-swept beaches, exotic locales, and the forbidden allure of a faraway land.
There will initially be three drinks in the series, with the first cocktail being announced sometime in July 2018.
