Tiki Cocktails
Explore 21 Tiki cocktail recipes.
Tiki cocktails are a category of their own — built on rum, citrus and orgeat, dressed up with theatrical glassware, and arranged in ratios that look chaotic on paper but read coherent on the palate. The Mai Tai is the working anchor: aged rum, orange curaçao, orgeat, lime, sometimes a float of dark rum, served over crushed ice with a mint sprig and a long lime peel. The Zombie pushes the same idea into stronger territory with three rums layered against pineapple, lime and grenadine.
The Three Dots and a Dash adds honey and falernum to the rum framework for a sweeter, spicier read. What you'll see across this list is how often the drink stacks two or three rums on top of each other rather than picking one — a white rum for brightness, an aged rum for body, occasionally a Jamaican rum for funk. Citrus does the structure work, orgeat or honey does the sweetening, and the glassware is part of the recipe.
Most are shaken hard with cracked ice rather than cubes, most reward a finished pour with crushed ice rather than a strained one, and most are best served with the garnish that the recipe calls for — the umbrella and the mint sprig aren't decoration, they smell the way the drink is meant to smell when it lands at the table.
Top Tiki cocktails
Zombie Punch
Absinthe, Dark rum, Gold rum, Overproof rum, Lime juice, Grenadine, Grapefruit juice, Aromatic bitters
Zombie
Gold rum, White rum, Jamaican rum, Aniseed liqueur, Grenadine, Lime juice, Falernum, Aromatic bitters
Mai Tai
White rum, Jamaican rum, Orange liqueur, Orgeat syrup, Sugar / simple syrup, Lime juice
Three Dots and a Dash
Gold rum, Jamaican rum, Allspice dram, Aromatic bitters, Falernum, Orange juice, Lime juice, Honey syrup
Bermuda Rum Swizzle
Black rum, Gold rum, Pineapple juice, Orange juice, Aromatic bitters, Falernum, Lemon
Fog Cutter
Dry gin, Brandy, White rum, Sherry (sweet), Lemon juice, Orgeat syrup, Orange juice
Dead Man's Chest
Gold rum, Amaro, Falernum, Aromatic bitters, Sugar / simple syrup, Pineapple juice, Lemon juice, Pepper
Coco Loco
Vodka, White rum, Coconut rum, Melon liqueur, Pineapple juice, Coconut cream