Tiki Time!

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Arts, Science, History, Food

4.7 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2019

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tiki bars are hot these days: you can enjoy a fruity tropical drink while surrounded by faux-Polynesian décor in most major cities around the U.S. and elsewhere, with new tiki spots opening every month. The trend is a revival of a nearly century-old American tradition—but the knowledge of how to make these classic tiki cocktails had been all but lost over the intervening decades. It took an amateur sleuth who went on a deep dive into cocktail archaeology and recipe cryptography to bring back the lost flavors. But, while the drinks he rediscovered are delicious, does the classic tiki bar interior, adorned with carvings that resemble traditional Polynesian gods, stand the test of time? Listen in for tales of Hollywood celebrities, backyard luaus, and a savvy restaurateur with a wooden leg. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Yeah, we'll take a minute to have your eyes to adjust, that's for sure.
0:07.0	It should have warned you to walk in like a pirate when I close.
0:12.0	There's some map over there, a polite, and then now I'm seeing...
0:16.0	It looks like a carving of a ship over there out of wood.
0:19.0	There are mosques everywhere.
0:21.0	Now we've been transported to Polynesia, I think, Cynthia.
0:25.0	Polynesia at night underwater.
0:27.0	Or, you know, North Hollywood on a hundred-degree day in September.
0:31.0	We were in North Hollywood at the Tonga Hat, because the Tonga Hat is America's oldest surviving Tiki Bar in Los Angeles,
0:38.0	and LA is the original home of Tiki culture.
0:40.0	Tiki is having a little bit of a moment right now.
0:44.0	Which initially struck me as weird.
0:46.0	In my head, Tiki drinks were these awful, sickly, sweet blue drinks with umbrellas in them,
0:51.0	that I would die of shame before ordering.
0:54.0	And we were curious, what are these fruity tropical drinks and the Tiki bars that serve them
0:59.0	have to do with sacred Polynesian carvings that are also called Tiki's?
1:03.0	But how about we start with an easier question to answer?
1:06.0	What are you listening to?
1:07.0	That's right, it's Gastropod, the podcast that looks at food through the lens of science and history.
1:11.0	I'm Cynthia Graber, and I'm Nicola Twilly, and this episode we are talking Tiki.
1:17.0	Why were Tiki drinks and Tiki bars and Tiki culture so huge in the mid-20th century?
1:23.0	And why are they coming back now?
	...

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