I was looking over the side of the boat at fish bouncing on the water. Small flashes of white occasionally sparkling the surface. A great expanse of royal blue Caribbean Sea surrounded me. I was at a small table under shade. The deck of the ship was wide and flat. Some people lounged, some sat at small bars peppered around a pool. Nevermind it was barely noon. That is what one does on days such as these. The sun was high now, but a cool breeze pushed the tropical humidity down towards the surface of the ocean. Presently, lost in reverie, musing at the silver backs of creatures breaking the surface below, a young blank-faced man placed a plastic hurricane cup in front of me causing me to look up thus, breaking my trance. This glance across the deck and back over the gunwale sent a jolt of perspective over me and for the first time I realized those fish dancing for attention, like so many Vegas strippers, were indeed a school of dolphins. Those sparkling dots along the surface? The rolling whitecaps of deep blue sea caused by the wake of a floating building. I was five stories up looking over the side of a cruise ship enjoying boat drinks.
Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Tony and this is Pod Tiki, where today we take our first of many sips into the colorful world of boat drinks.
I imagine as soon as australopithecus discovered eating that one berry made him feel funny he wandered over to the beach and stared at the water. There’s just something about catching a buzz on the water that appeals to us. But, it wasn’t always calypso bands on the lido deck. I think about Sir Frances Drake coming upon the healing qualities of mixing cane spirits with lime and mint while marooned in Havana. The scores of plunderous piratical partying under a Jolly Roger.
So, how did we get from there to a twenty-something with a bullhorn leading a conga line of alcohol bloated mid-westerners with sunglass tans around a pool while they ignore their kids? The story of the boat drink begins with the story of the cruise ship.
In 1874 German Albert Ballin took over his father’s immigration agency, converting it into the very successful shipping company, The Hamburg-America Line. Albert quickly rose in Germany’s elite circles. I guess you could say Ballin was ballin’? Anyway, he had a progressive idea to fashion one of his cargo ships into a passenger vessel to offset the loss of shipping revenue in winter months.
Ballin designed this venture for his uber wealthy friends who needed some convincing to board a repurposed shipping vessel for the sake of pleasure. So, he brought in famed ship builder Blohm & Voss to construct the first ship specifically designed for leisure. So it came to pass that on June 29th, in the year of our Lord 1900, the Prinzessin Victoria Luise set sail from Hamburg for a journey lasting 35 days. And where did the very first pleasure cruise ship sail to? Why, the Caribbean, of course!
That first leisure liner boasted all the trappings of high society for the day including fine dining and accommodations. Eventually, more affordable options became available and we began our dalliance with the pleasure cruise. Yet, still no mention of bars being featured.
When I hear the phrase “pleasure cruise” I immediately picture a Humphrey Bogart type character in a dinner jacket holding a martini nonchalantly leaning against a rail overlooking the sea while a jazz trio plays on a wooden deck. There’s a small bar with an awning under which sits a woman in cocktail dress propped up on one elbow. “Here’s lookin’ at you, kid.” A far cry from the tourist laden decks of drunk moms in the Bahamas drinking Bahama Mama’s.
For this we return to our old fiend prohibition. During the temperance movement millions of thirsty Americans engaged in movement to temperate zones do to their drinking. For those who couldn’t afford a stay at the Hotel Nacional in Havana, or Myrtle Bank Hotel in Jamaica, there was the option of taking a day cruise which could serve alcohol once reaching international waters. These were known as booze cruises. Reminds me of when my friends and I would utilize the gambling boats out of Cape Canaveral. One could pick at the buffet or sip something from the bar while watching the lights of port sink into the horizon. Then, at precisely 3 miles out, the ship would come to life in a barrage of glimmering lights and whirring casino games.
As the pleasure cruise industry grew exponentially the idea of cruising became synonymous with tropical drinks. Furthermore, as time marched on and cocktails fell victim to premade mixes and putting the word “tini” behind anything with vodka in it, just so did the venerated Planter’s Punches and Daiquiris of the West Indies. Not bash cruise ships too much we have to acknowledge they weren’t the first to bedevil our classic tropicals. Indeed an early version of a Pina Colada was offered as a welcome drink to guests arriving at the Caribe Hilton.
Let’s not pretend boat drinks only apply to cruise ships either. Growing up in Florida I spent plenty of time on lakes and rivers before venturing out to sea. If I’m being honest though, we mostly drank beer on the water with the occasional pre-batched Margarita in mixed up in igloo coolers. A pre-Tiki twenty-something Tony may have drunk his body weight in Bud Light Lime’s on more than one trip out to Disappearing Island.
Then one cold night circa 1970 in Boston Jimmy Buffett and his band were sitting at an open air bar watching hockey and trying to ward off the freeze with rum and tonic water. Legend has it Jimmy got fed up with weather and stole a cab back to his hotel. This incident was the inspiration for one of his most famous songs. A tale of suffering the winter chill while dreaming of the warmer climes that much more fit your particular brand of living. A song in which one orders rum drinks to wistfully wisk themselves into escapism. A song titled Boat Drinks. From then on the term was indelibly engraved into the hearts and minds of tropical imbibers the world over.
So, what exactly is a Boat Drink? This is the part where I veer away from objectivity and lean heavily on personal opinion. On a recent visit to a rum bar aptly called Boat Drinks in St. Augustine, Florida I was pleasantly surprised when I attempted at complimenting the bartender saying “with this selection I bet you can make me an outstanding Mai Tai.” To which he promptly informed me, “No. We are a tropical bar, not a Tiki bar.”
On the Pod Tiki website’s Recipe Index I break these style drinks into three categories. Tropical drinks, Tiki drinks, and Boat drinks. What’s the difference? Tropical drinks originated in the tropics. Mainly the Caribbean where the rum of any individual island would be blended with the local fruit. Limes, orange, pineapple, mango, and banana being among the most prevalent. These concoctions were honed over time by the masters into the classics like the Mojito, Daiquiri, and ‘Ti Punch. It was during this time when a young Ernest Gantt, later Don the Beachcomber, was traversing the West Indies picking up knowledge of all these rums and how they blend with various flavors.
Using rumgenuity he exotified these libations incorporating flavors from around the world and amalgamating tropic fruits and spices from both sides of the continent’s south seas. These were different than their Caribbean counterparts in that they were meant to induce a sense of faux-exotic escapism. Combining drinks with polynesian decor and hyperbolic versions of tropical adventure Tiki is the blank canvas on which Don Beach, Trader Vic, and Steve Crane painted their masterpiece.
My style in the Pod Tiki universe, which I’ve dubbed Tropiki, aims at smashing together to worlds of Caribbean tropical with Tiki Exotica. But the boat drink, much like the cheese, stands alone.
A boat drink can be enjoyed on a boat, or by the water, or anyplace a person might be drinking while wishing they were on a boat or by the water. I think a boat drink must induce vacation vibes. A waft of sunscreen should be in the air. Maybe some calypso on the speaker. Here’s what I think. A boat drink can consist of any spirit, there must be a tropical fruit involved, and should be indicative of vacation indulgence. Not something you could simply order at a Bennigan’s. It’s my belief that a boat drink should more often than not be frozen. Indeed. Some tropicals can be turned into boat drinks by freezing. Margarita? Not a boat drink. But a frozen margarita? Boat drink. Straight up Daiquiri? Not a boat drink. But a frozen fruited Daiquiri? Boat drink.
I’m going to save a deep dive on the history of the blender for a future episode, but I should mention that freezing a drink does not automatically put it in the category of subpar. In fact, the original Daiquiri created by Jennings Cox was served over shaved ice. And Constanino Ribalagua Vert, head bartender at La Floridita in Havana and the proverbial grandfather of the Daiquiri, was among the first to utilize the newly invented ice blender to perfect his La Floridita Daiquiri Number 3, made famous by being the favorite of Ernest Hemingway. Some of his early Daiquiris also included fruit flavoring like orange and cherry. More on that later.
I also feel like to properly be called a “boat drink”, it has to be easily batchable. When loading up for a boat trip you don’t want to have to bring along extra syrups and bitters and liqueurs. It should be able to be thrown together on a boat if you’re making them yourself, or if laying out on a cruise ship deck, not necessitate too much thinking about what you’re drinking. I don’t want to have to be pensive about the nuances of terroir when floating on a giant inflatable taco in the pool. For this reason I don’t recommend using your top shelf booze, either. You want something you don’t mind dumping a whole bottle of into a pitcher. Essentially a boat drink should be light, easy drinking, and imbued with tropical vacation vibes.
Because a boat drink can be almost anything, and there are a ton of famous and infamous ones on the books, today we’re going to cover two of the most popular from the “fruited daiquiri” category. The Strawberry Daiquiri and the Banana Daiquiri.
This could be as simple as adding a few pieces of fruit to your blender or as complex as you wish to create with flavored syrups or blends of fruits and rums. The former method was given to me by an acquaintance from Cuba who taught me about dropping a few slices of mango into my blender when making classic daiquiris. It makes a wonderfully smooth and delicious libation. Before we get into the drinks though let’s go over the art of frozen drinks. The following tips come from a Liquor.com article by Emily Saladino.
First, don’t try to overproof your drink. Too much alcohol won’t freeze and alter the texture of your drink. We’ve all added too much ice to our blenders at some point and ended up having to wait for a sip every five minutes as it melts. Not ideal to say the least. I recommend using crushed ice as well, rather than large cubes.
Rule number 2, temperature affects flavor. Ice will numb your taste buds, so when making a frozen drink remember to add more fruit or sugar than you might think to for a straight up cocktail. I learned this lesson during my first attempts at frozen margaritas. They ended up tasting like tequila ice. Also, sugar syrup and fruit will add texture to an otherwise slushy drink.
Next, minimize dilution by keeping your ingredients cold prior to using. Basically, shove those fruits in the fridge a few hours before using.
Consider blend time. Are you looking for a truly frozen drink or more of a frapped smoothie style? I prefer frapped, like Constante made his Floridita Daiquiris.
Lastly, keep in mind your pairings. We’ll get into this more later when we dissect recipes, but think about which rums go with each fruit. Are you looking for a light summery session drink, or something that might appeal to the more sophisticated palate?
Now that we have our history and rules out of the way, you guessed it, let’s make a drink!
First we’ll cover Banana Daiquiri, which finds it roots with William Dampier. Dampier sailed with many famous pirates circa the turn of the 18th century, but what he’s most famous for is being an early naturalist. Along his vast travels he took copious notes on the strange and exotic peoples he encountered. One such missive was a recipe by the Miskito people, natives of modern day Honduras and Nicaragua, called Mishlaw. That influenced a drink served at Sprat Hall Plantation in St. Croix during the 1960s. Jim and Joyce Hurd would cook dinner for hotel guests each evening with fruits and veggies grown in their own backyard. Along with dinner was served the Crucian Banana Squash. Made by soaking ripe bananas in gold rum for 4 hours, then blending with lime juice and ice, this makes a very smooth rich drink with heavy banana flavor.
From there we jump a decade to 1971, Ft Lauderdale, Florida, the famous Mai Kai, where Marianno Lucidine created the Banana Daiquiri. Well, he put his version on the menu. Not to take anything away from one of the most prolific Tiki masters, but as stated earlier, adding fruit to a daiquiri was pretty standard once the blender became ubiquitous. Mr. Lucidine deserves all the credit we can muster after a few of drinks, though. After spending 16 years behind the bar at Don The Beachcomber’s, he went on to helm the Mai Kai from its inception in 1956 till he retired in 1980. I’m sure we’ll be seeing his influence when the Mai Kai reopens later this year.
As for his Banana Daiquiri? What a smooth perfectly textured and wonderfully balanced drink. Marianno calls for gold Puerto Rican rum. I also experimented with Cruzan gold and Barbados rums. Keeping with the rule of pairing the rum to the fruit I imagined the butterscotch/vanilla notes of Barbados would go nicely with banana. I was wrong. In my opinion the best rum for this is good old fashioned Bacardi. I used the white, but I wouldn’t go higher than the 4yr if you’re insistent on using a gold. I feel like the light column still rum adds a summery crispness with less of an alcohol bite. Remember, we’re drinking boat drinks on a lazy afternoon, not sipping a Ron del Barrilito.
So, with that very minor adjustment the Pod Tiki Banana Daiquiri recipe is:
1 ½ oz Bacardi Superior Silver
½ oz Lime Juice
½ oz Simple Syrup
Half a Ripe Banana, sliced thin
4 oz crushed ice
Add all ingredients to a mixer and blend on high for a full 30 seconds. We really want to frappe that good and make sure there are no chunks of either banana or ice. Just to be sure we’re going to strain that once into a coup. Such a great drink and I could honestly have one every day. Banana is such a complex flavor that it adds so much with little effort. Now, I realize some of you have heard this tale that it’s bad luck to bring bananas on a boat. To that I say, how do you think they got here?
Though the Banana Daiquiri is my current favorite of the Boat Drink genre I would be remiss to do our first boat drink episode and not cover the king of all boat drinks. The frozen Strawberry Daiquiri is to boat drinks what the Mai Tai is to Tiki.
In prepping for this episode I wanted to make sure I did my due diligence. I didn’t want to use the Boat Drink moniker as an excuse to push out an easy episode where I tell you to mix some frozen Minute Maid concentrate with a bottle of light rum and call it a day. Being Tiki fans we already know the benefits of using fresh ingredients, how they transform a frat party into a cocktail soiree, but I also wanted to test if I could dignify the rum choices by varying the styles. I chose a light, a gold, and because my favorite rum for the classic Daiquiri is Plantation 3 Star, I tried that as well. Surprisingly, the 3 Star didn’t hold up. Even the slightest hint of Jamaican funk clashed with strawberries. It made the drink too funky to be a poolside sipper. Look, I like a Hazy IPA, but when I’m out in the hot sun all day I’m reaching for a Corona.
Cruzan Gold was almost my favorite. A bit more subdued and less crisp than the light rum option, but smoother, richer, and well balanced. But, when it’s all said and drunk, once again Bacardi Silver made the best Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri. Not only is it light and drinkable, but it allows the fruit to be the highlight. Where the Cruzan demurred the strawberries, Bacardi seemed to bring out the fruitiness and really place the freshness of the Strawberries center stage.
I’ve always said on this show that I am not a booze snob and everything has its place. Well, Boat Drinks is the place for Bacardi. I cannot restate enough that simply because a spirit or a beer or a wine is mass produced does not mean it’s of lesser quality. Despite your prejudices, Budweiser is a premium American lager, and Bacardi pretty much invented the clear Spanish style of rum. I actually got to stand beside the original Bacardi building in Havana and look up at the bat statue still gracing the skyline as it still does each label of Bacardi.
As it would not be an episode of Pod Tiki without a tiny soapbox let me reiterate, I have been drinking rum for quite some time. All the way from the bottom shelf up to the shelves that I need a stepladder to reach. I’m not saying drink rotgut. I’m just saying if you use a $30 bottle of Probitas for a batch of frozen fruit daiquiris you're a fool. But, it must be nice having the luxury of being so wasteful. Conclusion: Boat Drinks are not meant to be dignified.
Anyway, there are a few honorable mentions before we get to the recipe. Listener David G., I’m not going to say his full name without permission, suggested The Essential Book of Boat Drinks by Olaf Nordstrom. I especially like the Jimmy Buffett correlation. For full transparency I will say it’s made in conjunction with the Margaritaville brand. There are some great recipes in there, in fact, I’ll be using the Barbados Punch for the Summer Sessions EP release party here in Nashville, but the recipe for his fruited daiquiri breaks one of my cardinal boat drink rules. It’s gotta be easy and batchable. Olaf’s recipe calls for cream and flavored liqueur. The addition of cream renders this version more of a strawberry milkshake than a daiquiri. I do want to give another thank you to David, though, for being our very first Patreon subscriber! More on that later.
I also tried a standard straight up version of a Strawberry Daiquiri. I found it, eh, at best. It was pretty much a pink daiquiri and lacked the gustatory luster of perhaps using grapefruit, blueberry, or orange.
The last thing to mention would be to choose fresh bright red strawberries and be sure to hull them beforehand. That is, to cut out the root area where the leaves sprout from but making a shallow circular incision around the root and pulling it out.
With all of that being said I give you the official Pod Tiki Strawberry Daiquiri:
1 ½ oz Bacardi Silver
½ oz Lime Juice
½ oz Simple Syrup
4 fresh, hulled Strawberries
4 oz Crushed Ice
Add all ingredients to blender and blend on high for a full 30 seconds. Fine strain into a coup or hurricane glass and enjoy! Be sure to fine strain to remove any pesky seeds or errant ice chunks. As far as garnish, if there ever was an umbrella drink this is it. No shame in my umbrella boat drink game!
The end result is a smooth, fruity, low alcohol, and honestly not that bad for you, drink. There’s a lovely balance of sweet and sour, fruitiness and just enough rum to feel good. If you want to feel better than good just up the rum to 2 ounces. Fresh strawberry just goes so well in a daiquiri it’s no wonder there isn’t a real origin story behind it. It seems the Strawberry Daiquiri simply always was and always will be.
Covering frozen drinks has brought back fond memories for me. There was a bar in downtown Orlando called Chillers that served from a wall of frozen mixers churning every flavor imaginable. On a trip to South Beach my daughter and I sat on the balcony of Wet Willie’s, ordering from their wall of frozen drinks, getting quite tight, and watching tawdry luxury cars cruise Ocean Dr. One such convertible was painted green and sported a giant stuffed Yoshi riding shotgun.
But when I imagine Boat Drinks I picture Lido deck of a cruise ship lounging around the pool while generic island music plays from some indistinct direction. I would say that is my guilty pleasure escape, except I’m not the least bit guilty about it.
For the past few decades Boat Drinks as a genre have been demeaned. Relegated to thatch hut beachside bars, but I’m glad to see a recent resurgence in the idea that a vacation drink can be high quality and delicious. Sure many are made with mixes and served up in a plastic hurricane cup, but sub out concentrated mixes and high fructose corn syrup for fresh fruit and homemade syrups, and you have a tropical delight worthy of enjoyment on a Lido deck in the Caribbean, listening to yacht rock on a pontoon boat on the lake, or floating on that giant inflatable unicorn in the pool. So, in the words of the patron bard of Pod Tiki I give a collective - Waitress, we need two more Boat Drinks!
Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Tony, and this is Pod Tiki.
Sources: The Essential Book Of Boat Drinks by Olaf Nordstrom, Potions of the Caribbean by Jeffy Berry, Beachbum Berry Remixed by Jeff Berry, Liquor.com, diffordsguide.com, The Origin of the Booze Cruise from blogyourwine.com, The History of the World’s First Cruise Ship Built Solely for Luxurious Travel article by Daryl Austin from smithsonianmag.com.
Most important, thank you so much for listening and Keepi Tiki!
