Discerning mixologists know that rum is at the heart of tiki cocktails because it was the alcohol of choice of Ernest Raymond “Donn Beach” Gantt and Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron — the founding fathers of tiki culture.

Tiki culture has been a part of the American tapestry since Don the Beachcomber opened in 1934, but the movement’s current popularity is far from its heyday in the Atomic Era. Fortunately, the late 1990s saw signs of it coming back.

Many classic drinks, such as the Jungle Bird, Mai Tai, Navy Grog, Three Dots and a Dash and the Zombie, are rum-based, but it’s worth learning new concoctions using other spirits to broaden your horizons. Add these six to your arsenal.

1. London Sour

This cocktail is a Trader Vic original invented to memorialize the 1963 opening of the tiki bar in the Big Smoke.

What You Need

• 2 ounces of Scotch
• A dash of orgeat syrup
• A dash of simple syrup
• 1/2 of fresh orange
• 1/2 of fresh lemon
• 1 1/2 cups of crushed ice
• A sprig of mint for garnish

How to Mix

1. Fill your shake with ice.
2. Squeeze the orange into the shaker. Save the rind for later.
3. Squeeze the lemon and put the rind into the shaker.
4. Add all the other ingredients.
5. Shake and pour the drink into a double old-fashioned glass unstrained.
6. Garnish with mint and orange rind.

2. Rangoon Gimlet

This drink is Tony Ramos’s take on the traditional gimlet developed in the early 1960s. You can use either gin or vodka, but many mixologists prefer the former to the latter.

 What You Need

• 1 ounce of fresh lime juice
• 2 ounces of simple syrup
• 3 ounces of gin
• 2 dashes of Angostura bitters
• 2 cups of crushed ice
• 2 green cocktail cherries for garnish

How to Mix

1. Combine all ingredients in the blender, including the ice last.
2. Fire up the blender on high for 20 seconds.
3. Pour the mix into two goblets.
4. Top each with a cherry.

3. Port Light

The Port Light is a Sandro Conti masterpiece created for the Kahiki Supper Club in Columbus, Ohio. The Polynesian-themed restaurant is no longer around, but its legacy lives on with this tiki cocktail. It’s as easy to make as the most popular bourbon concoctions but slightly more potent than some.

What You Need

• 5 ounces of bourbon
• 1 ounce of lemon juice
• 1/2 ounce of passion fruit syrup
• 1/4 ounce of grenadine syrup
• 1/2 cup of crushed ice

How to Mix

1. Put all ingredients into the blender.
2. Blend them for five seconds.
3. Pour the contents into a rocks glass or a mug unstrained.

4. Pinky Gonzales

This drink initially appeared on the menu of the tiki bar Señor Pico — a restaurant concept Bergeron created 27 years after the first Trader Vic’s opened in 1937. Pinky Gonzales has transcended the Mexican-American joint and become a tiki bar mainstay.

What You Need

• 2 ounces of tequila
• 1/2 ounce of lime juice
• 1/2 ounce of orange curaçao
• 1/4 ounce of orgeat syrup
• 1/4 ounce of simple syrup
• 2 cups of crushed ice
• 1/2 squeezed lime, a sprig of mint and a fruit stick for garnish

How to Mix

1. Put all liquid ingredients into the shaker.
2. Shake everything.
3. Put the crushed ice into a double old-fashioned glass or mug.
4. Pour the mix into the ice-filled container without straining.
5. Arrange all garnishes in style.

5. Saturn

1. "PoPo" Galsini’s Saturn won the 1967 International Bartender's Association World Championship. Its original name was the X-15 — a U.S. Air Force hypersonic rocket-powered plane — in honor of its engineers. However, Galsini renamed it after one of its test pilots died in a crash.

The Saturn is as tasty as other enduring tiki cocktails, but its garnish makes it distinct. It features a miniature ringed planet made of lemon rinds and a suspended cocktail cherry held by a toothpick.

What You Need

• 1 1/4 ounces of gin
• 1/2 ounce of lemon juice
• 1/2 ounce of passion fruit syrup
• 1/4 ounce of falernum
• 1/4 ounce of orgeat syrup
• 1 cup of crushed ice
• 2 lemon rinds and a cocktail cherry for garnish

How to Mix

1. Put everything in a blender.
2. Blend until the mix is smooth.
3. Pour unstrained into a mug or a Pilsner glass.

6. Singapore Sling

This ambrosial alcoholic drink masquerades as a fruit juice. Raffles Hotel bartender Ngiam Tong Boon developed this low-key cocktail for the ladies when Singaporean society frowned upon women drinking in public. Although the stigma is gone, the Singapore Sling has stood the test of time due to its status as the country’s national drink and enshrinement in pop culture.

What You Need

• 1 1/2 ounces gin
• 1/4 ounce of Cointreau
• 1/4 ounce of Benedictine
• 1/2 ounce of Cherry Heering
• 4 ounces of pineapple juice
• 1/2 ounce of lime juice
• 1/3 ounce of grenadine syrup
• A dash of bitters
• A cherry and a pineapple slice for garnish

How to Mix

1. Put all ingredients — except for the garnish — into the shaker.
2. Shake until chilled.
3. Strain the contents into a high glass.
4. Round out its fruity aesthetics with the pineapple and cherry.

Be Part of the Tiki Renaissance

Will South Seas-themed watering holes spring up like mushrooms again across the country? The glory days of tiki bars may return if talented bartenders and mixologists like you keep classic cocktails alive and reinvent legendary recipes for contemporary palates.

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