Hi folks,

Sorry we have been not online for some time...it has been items such as schedules, work, private lives and other items that has set us back. We will work harder to bring you the shows and thanks for sticking with us.
This episode, we will be talking about the Pago Pago cocktail and its origins. There was a time where in North America there was several tiki bars named Pago Pago and a few still stand today. The main item we discuss on the origin of this drink t=is two little islands in the Pacific ocean that are surrounded by the international date line. This imaginary line has gone through so many changes as to which areas it covers. So one of the islands West Samoa and the American Somoa islands are on opposite sides of this line. The capital city of American Somoa is Pago Pago. The line is by the way not a true straight line as you will see on any map. By the way depending who you reference the line it changes depend if its Google maps or other sources.
For the cocktail, we will give you not one or two recipes but 3 different recipes to this cocktail. Some ingredients can be hard if not impossible to find especially the Chartreuse.
On Mark's adventures: we finally get to a location in Canada. The Shameful Tiki Room in BC Canada is the next location Mark has adventured to and will give us a full report on. This unique bar (as there are not many at all of tiki bars in Canada) has tons of character, drinks, rums, music and décor to discuss. It has been operating for 10 years now and just has its anniversary celebration which Mark was part of.

Links to the show:
Recipes from the show: https://tikicentralcanada.ca/recipes-page-2/
International Date line YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBppb2quqkE
Mark's Adventures page: https://tikicentralcanada.ca/marks-tiki-page/

Hi guys,

Sorry for the delay we had a recording session that was a bad recording and so we had to re-schedule this show to get a good recording. So this past year we lost a famous and pioneer in the tiki world, Harry Yee at the age of 104 years old. Wow, that in itself is an amazing accomplishment. Do you want to grow that old? I'm aiming for 100!!

Anyways, on this show we will cover two of Harry's cocktails: Tapa Punch (1959) and Chimp in Orbit (1961), Tapa Punch was the first cocktail to have a parasol incorporated in a drink. The Chimp in Orbit was named after a chimpanzee also known as Ham the Chimp and Ham the Astrochimp, was the first Great Ape launched into space. Both of these drinks will include some Puerto Rician rum and Jamaican.

We also get into Harry's life story and where and how he started his journey to the tiki world and some of the accomplishments he made along the way that we know and cherish today. Here is a sample of some of these facts such as he flew in World War II for the Chinese air force. He also worked for Don the beachcomber and Trader Vic which we know are the pioneers of tiki. He then moved onto the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort is a resort hotel on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, Hawaii. There several show including Hawaiian Eye and the movie Blue Hawaii were shot and Harry created drinks for them. He also was approached by Bols to create a nice tropical blue cocktail to go with their new Blue Curacao liqueur.

On "Did you know?" segment: we will give you some cools facts about Hawaii like did you know there are no snakes on the plane (ops, I meant island...sorry Samuel)!! There are also no billboards and they are the only state of USA that still honors a king!! and much more.....

Links to the show:
Recipes from this show: https://tikicentralcanada.ca/recipes-page-2/
The YouTube Video for Tapa Punch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMuelHTwFCU
Another YouTube video for Tapa Punch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=278HKOc3dHA
Chimp In Orbit Cocktail YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md8jpp9xS-Y&t=67s

Hi folks and Happy New Year,

This is our 5th year doing the show and wow we have gone through a lot in that time!! I was hoping we would have cracked 100th last year but it's coming!! Ok, enough about that, this show is part two of Mark's adventures to Hawaii....

We will do two cocktails on this show for you from there. We need to do some Mai Tai cocktails of course and so we are giving you two versions of Trader Vic's Mai Tai. Now wait a minute Craig, I thought there is one original and all the other are spin offs of that but how can the same man make different versions of his drink? Well, I will tell you, the reason is the rums that he purchased to make the original Mai Tai cocktail were specific rums from specific parts of the Caribbean and through time those rums depleted. So, he had to start all over with new rums and maybe change some of the mixes to compliment those new rums. Also, tourism is a factor in creation of tropical drinks as they want something more main stream and ingredients that they would know and already have a craving for. Remember, NO grenadine though ok!!!

So we will do 1956 version of the drink with specific regional rums and the next one will be 1961 and the rums will be more general and the mixes will change as well. We find out just what does Mark put in his version of the Mai Tai and his thoughts on many Mai Tais that he did try out while he was in Hawaii. We explain what is Rocky Candy syrup which was a common ingredient back in those days in some of the recipes you will find. It's very simple (lol) to make!!!
We discuss the secrecy that was back then to keep competitors or clients wondering just what is in this drink. I ask Mark on his thoughts as to why is the Mai Tai the Hawaiian tiki drink ???

On "Mark's Adventures" segment: we discuss great small place Mark found called "Tahiti Nui". We discover another strong willed woman ran this place and had things like Pot lucks and live music to keep the clients coming back for more. This long running bar has a lot of history in it and Mark dived right in to find out more!!!

Links to the show:
Recipes for this show: https://tikicentralcanada.ca/recipes-page-2/
Mark's Adventure page: https://tikicentralcanada.ca/marks-tiki-page/
Tahiti Nui website: https://www.thenui.com/
YouTube Video of Tahiti Nui restaurant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqqyRNFkcHo