So you want to beat the heat and quench your thirst, but an ice cold beer doesn’t sound refreshing. How about cooling off this summer with a delicious and refreshing Tiki cocktail?
Sit back, relax, and enjoy one of these classics on a hot sultry New Orleans afternoon.
News with a Twist went to the world’s leading Tiki expert Jeff “Beachbum” Berry for his Top 3 tropical cocktails. Who better to ask? Berry and his wife own Latitude 29 — New Orleans’s premiere Tiki bar and restaurant—located inside the Bienville Hotel in the French Quarter
Mai Tai
Berry says of the three choices he would pick a Mai Tai which means “awesome” in Tahitian. He warns though not one of those red punch drinks found on cruise lines or restaurants across the country, but a properly crafted Mai Tai.
Zombie
Again, names have everything to do with a drink. Second on the list is the Zombie. “The Zombie was the world’s most famous tropical drink before the Mai Tai,” shares “Beachbum” Berry.
New Orleans native Don the Beachcomber introduced the Zombie the day after Prohibitions was repealed in 1933. Berry says it was “a huge headline-making, real groundbreaking drink from the 1930s.”
Berry says, “the Zombie was just basically a punch in the eye to the anti-saloon league. We’re just not going to start drinking again; we’re going to start drinking the strongest drink in the world. The Zombi was advertised as no more than two to a customer.”
Berry calls it a turbocharged version of the Planter’s Punch.
Navy Grog
Berry’s third choice to sit, back sip, and enjoy the Navy Grog. Another Don the Beachcomber drink “and one of his best,” says Berry. “It’s a rhapsody of rum.”
So there you go. Take a Polynesian vacation in your backyard or head down to Latitude 29 in the Bienville House Hotel at 321 N. Peters Street in the French Quarter.