Lita, the Oriental Mystery Girl is Miss June 1963.

Mai Kai, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Sponsored by Tiki Daze - The only damn calendar that matters!

I brought up getting bags of crushed ice before in preparation for a luau. Crushed ice is as much a part of a proper tropical cocktail as fresh mint and rum. But when you are mixing for 40, it’s hard to get that much proper ice.

I found a new solution. Sonic Drive-Ins. They are not in all the country, but they are pretty widespread. And that fine ice they use for their drinks is available by the bag. That is a great solution.

I have not gotten Basement Kahuna to post here yet, but he has agreed to let me be the first to publish his cocktail recipes. Besides his great carving skills, he has a great pallette and has recreated some recipes from tasting them, like the Mai Kai’s “Black Magic,” as well as created new ones of his own.

But here is the catch. You don’t just get to see the recipes. They are now integrated into the Grogalizer. So, when you use the Grogalizer to find recipes to make, you will find a few extras that come from BK’s private recipe book…

The Grogalizer is here. Enjoy.

UPDATE: I have also included the top three recipes from the Tiki Central Drink Contest in the Grogalizer.

I had the good pleasure to meet Beachbum Berry at Hukilau. Heard his discussion on drinks and drink making. Talked drinks with him and even talked drinks at the Mai Kai. I also found out he was relocating just over the mountain from here in Asheville, NC.  I was pleased to learn he knew of my efforts with the Grogalizer, and now I am very pleased that he has added the handy online tool to his website. I hear I get some sort of mention in his new book. I can’t wait to get my copy from him at Hukilau this year!

That, and a gift card to the liquor store…

I created the Grogalizer a few years ago because I was tired of spending lots of time thumbing through the Beachbum Berry books looking for a recipe I could make with what I had on hand.

It was a goal to make every tiki drink recipe in that book. So I had long been going through and marking a grade in the corner of each page as I made it. The Grogalizer simplified all that. You just select the ingredients you have in your bar and it tells you which tropical drinks you can make. Then you can grade them and add your comments. You can see the average vote for the drink given by everyone and see their suggestions as well. A new feature allows you to see your graded recipes from best to worst.

I use the site all the time and as I find a need, I create a solution there.

I assumed everyone already knew about this site, but, just to be sure, I am sending out this post. If you are making the recipes in these book, you need to use the site. Or, one day when you catch the mixology bug, you’ll need it then.

And if you don’t have them yet, you need to buy The Grog Log, Intoxica and Taboo Table. The new one is coming out and you are behind!

 This is an image of the new bamboo blinds we got for our porch. As you can see, though they look nice, they don’t block a lot of sun and people’s eyes. We decided to keep them anyway and attach some fabric to the inside to make them more opaque. But what fabric? I thought we’d just pick some curtain material up at the fabric shop.

Last weekend we were wandering Target to see what was on sale and they had various tropical items on clearance. Ms. Swanky picks up a shower curtain and the light came on. The curtain was exactly the size of the blinds! So we grabbed two curtains on sale for $14 each.

She got a can of indoor/outdoor spray adhesive at a craft store and we went to work. First I took the blinds down and cut some wire which we used to attach the shower curtain to the bamboo rod at the top of the blinds. After re-hanging the blinds on the porch, Ms. Swanky began carefully spraying and flattening the material to the blinds.

We have one done now and it looks fantastic! It blocks the sun and eyes and from the outside you can’t even see it. From the inside it fills the space with color and looks incredible. And it rolls up just fine. Can’t wait to start coordinating with these colors.