Hawaiian Drinks: A Brief Guide To Hawaii’s Tropical Drinks
Hawaiian Drinks: My secret family recipe.
Hawaii is home to beautiful beaches, active volcanoes and beautiful flowers like ginger and anthurium flowers. In Hawaii, you can also find several drinks have become closely associated with the islands. Few people fail to think of Mai Tai’s or Blue Hawaii’s, when the drinks of Hawaii are mentioned. But Hawaii also offers a special type of coffee and an exotic drink called kava. Here are a few of my favorite Hawaiian drinks.
Mai Tai
Almost everybody who visits Hawaii has heard of the legendary drink called the Mai Tai. But did you know that this drink wasn’t invented here. It was invented by a man named Donn Beach who owned a restaurant in California. Beach’s recipe consists of rum, orange curacao and orange juice. Beach seems to have the perfect surname for a man whose drink is sipped on the beaches of Hawaii.
Kona Coffee
A man named Samuel Ruggles brought the first coffee plant to Kona in 1828. Kona’s unique weather and fertile soil produces a coffee that surpasses nearly all other coffees in the world. The only comparable coffee outside of Kopi Luwak (which is not for the squeamish) is probably Jamaica’s Blue Mountain coffee. Kona coffee is grown on over eight hundred farms that are located in the districts of North or South Kona. Only coffee cultivated in these two districts can be called Kona Coffee.
Blue Hawaii
The Blue Hawaii was created by Harry Yee in 1957. Yee came up with the Blue Hawaii, which is a combination of vodka, rum, blue curacao and pineapple juice, after being asked by a product sales representative of the Bols Company to create a drink featuring their new Blue Curacao liquor. Obviously, it was a big hit. The Blue Hawaii, with its signature blue color, has become a popular drink in Hawaii.
Kava
Kava is grown all over the pacific. Early polynesian voyagers introduced kava to Hawaii and have been having it for centuries. Kava appears to calm the mind and body, and also seems to foster sociability. But be forewarned, most people who try kava for the first time say that it is one of the most horrible tasting drinks they have ever tried.