Tiki Old Fashioned: The Cocktail You Didn’t Know You Needed

One of the things I’ve tried to do a bit on this site is to give you a lot of complimentary recipes.

All too often I’ll get a new cocktail book, and it feels like not only does every drink use a completely different set of ingredients, but often times they’re obscure ingredients at that.

One of my goals here is to make world class cocktails a little bit more accessible, so when I start going down a certain path, I want to create a few different recipes that allow you to enjoy that new bottle in different ways.

Recently, I’ve been sharing some recipes using one of my absolute favorite rums: Plantation Pineapple.

It’s absolutely delicious, and more versatile than you might originally think.

I’ve already shared the Stiggins Daiquiri, and even a Pineapple Negroni – both of which are good uses for it.

But I lately I’ve found myself wanting to do a tiki version of an old fashioned. We have our “house” rum old fashioned in the Dockside, but I wanted to do something that had some of the herbal, spicy elements that you often get from tiki drinks.

And honestly, this one didn’t take me that long to perfect – after just the second attempt I found it to be pretty much perfect.

How to Make a Tiki Old Fashioned

For this “Tiki” Old Fashioned, we combined my two all time favorite rums in Plantation Pineapple and Smith and Cross as the base.

But there are two specific elements that add that tiki flavor that makes this drink stand out.

The first is All Spice Dram. I bought this bottle after making a few drinks from the Smugglers Cove book. It’s one of those that I feel good about investing in, because in most drinks you’ll use just a hint of it – so the bottle will last a long time.

The second is Smoked Cinnamon bitters. I’ve had these in my bar for awhile, but haven’t done much with them. This felt like the perfect opportunity to pull it out, and it works wonderfully.

So when you factor in the two rums, then add the all spice and cinnamon which give you some of those traditional “tiki” flavors, you end up with a fantastic drink to sip on. It’s both sweet, a little bit savory, and an enjoyable departure from your traditional old fashioned.

And while you may have to go pick up a bottle of St. Elizabeth All Spice Dram, you’ll find many of the recipes on this site use Smith and Cross or Plantation Pineapple – so be sure to check out the archives for more using them.

We also recommend demerara simple syrup with this one, over regular cane sugar.

Other Similar Drinks to Consider

• The Dockside Rum Old Fashioned – My “house” rum old fashioned using 3 different rums.
• Smoking Banana – Another old fashioned style cocktail that also uses Smith and Cross.
• Old Fashioned – Sometimes you just need the original