Zen Tiki Lounge

ZTL 239 Time For Tiki Caliente 4, Book Your Rooms Now

Sunshine Tiki — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 09:21:56 +0000

Sunshine and Starshine couldn’t be more excited to tell you that Tiki Caliente 4 rooms and tickets are now on sale. The event isn’t till May 18-20, but you will want to book now to make sure you get a spot at THE best tiki weekend event this Spring. You can also get an exclusive event tiki mug themed after the long closed Don the Beachcomber location in Palm Springs. And if you want to make sure you look your best by the pool at the party, we have another lower calorie version of a classic tiki drink. This time, the Painkiller. What was 560 calories is now 240, thats two for one! We also have plenty to say about the current events that have had some of us on pins and needles. SOPA has been shot down or now, Keystone XL has been corked and Newt Gingrich is still upset that people would call him out for cheating on multiple wives. That all makes for good conversation. We answer some listener mail, discuss whether or not tiki and polynesian kitsch is on the down swing (it isn’t), give some advice on infusing rum, vodka and the like and so much more. So mix up a painkiller, book your room at Tiki Caliente and join ZTL at our room party that will open to all event guests. Tip your bartender! Cheers and Mahalo

The Pain Killer (low cal version) 240 calories

2 ounces Pusser’s Rum

1 ounce cocnut rum (Cruzan or Coruba work best)

4 ounces unsweetened pineapple juice

1 ounce fresh OJ

Sprinkle of nutmeg

Shake everything with ice except the nutmeg. Pour into highball glass filled with crushed ice and sprinkle with nutmeg. Simple. The original recipe calls for 1-2 ounces of coconut cream which add up to an additional 260 calories. Wow! We sub the cream for coconut rum. Still has that pineapple and coconut flavor but removes over 200 calories. For an even lighter version, you can cut the rum back just a little or some of the juice. But, we found this recipe balances the rum and juice perfectly. Enjoy!

ZTL 238 Puka Shells And Spy Music, Cheers!

Sunshine Tiki — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 08:14:58 +0000

This is week two of our series on low calorie cocktails. Our drink this week is the Puka Shell. A tasty grapefruit libation with Okolehao, spiced rum and cinnamon. All for 160 calories while still packing that inebriated punch you all love so much. While drinking we enjoy some classic 60′s spy movie tunes from the likes of Hugo Montenegro, Henry Maincini and others. Low cal drinks and spy music set the mood for some news about our favorite TIKI weekend event, Tiki-Caliente 4 in Palm Springs this May 18-20th. Rooms/Tickets go on sale to the general public on Jan 21st. The super hip event is packed with rum, music, parties and plenty of time to get to know everyone in the tiki and pop culture enthusiast communities. The Zen Tiki Lounge will be hosting another swining room party with two more unique cocktails sure to knock your knickers off. Don’t forget to snag one of the Tiki Caliente 4 event mugs when purchasing your room. You can grab everything in one purchase. Can’t be more convenient or a better value. The rest of the show centers around a healthy new year. Fresh juices, a little more exercise, starting that garden full of veggies and herbs and much more. Check out Sunshine’s favorite nutrition podcast, The Nutrition Diva Podcast, as this episode is about alcohol metabolism. Too much fun for one show. Oh, and there may be some offensive banter tossed in for good measure.

Puka Shell

2 ounces white grapefruit juice

1 ounce Okolehao (Hawaiian ti plant liquor)

3/4 ounce spiced rum (Seven Tiki or Voodoo)

1/4 ounce cinnamon infused syrup*

Shake all with ice and pour into highball filled with crushed ice. Garnish with single cocktail cherry on a pick layed over top of drink. *Cinnamon Syrup: simmer 1 cup water with 1 cup sugar and 3 cinnamon sticks for 5 minutes. Turn off heat, set for 30 minutes and bottle. Keep in fridge for use in cocktails, coffee, on ice cream etc.

ZTL 237 A Low Calorie Mai Tai For A New Year

Sunshine Tiki — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 07:43:55 +0000

After a few weeks off from the podcast Kalani and Sunshine are back at the bar and behind the microphone. Feeling refreshed by the new year and the hope of things to come we start things off with a low calorie version of the famous Mai Tai. And, we are very glad to say that this 200 cal version of the usual 400-600 calorie cocktail is damn good. Other tiki friends are making promises to themselves to continue their own self improvement and we feel like joining in with some support and our own goals. Kalani wants to stick to a healthier way of eating and some more exercise while Sunshine simply wants some muscles. We can do it! Join us at Tiki Caliente Calorie Countdown and share your story and support. Speaking of Tiki Caliente, the fourth annual event is coming this May and we have plenty to say. Also, listener mail, some odd spacey exotica and plenty of the shenanigans you always tune in for. Plus a live version of Como Oye Va from The Revomatics at a recent show they did back home. Happy New Year and Cheers!

Mai Tai (Low Cal) But still great tasting!

1.5 ounces Fresh Lime Juice

1 ounce Rum (Plantation, St. James Royal Amber or Cruzan Single Barrle work well)

1/2 ounce Citronage or other Orange higher proof liquor

3/4 ounce Amaretto (this subs the orgeat)

1 tsp of pure cane sugar syrup (Depaz is great)

Shake with ice and strain into a double old fashioned filled with crushed ice. Garnish with lime wedge and mint sprig. This recipe cuts the typical mai tai from 420 calories down to 209. Cheers and Enjoy!

ZTL 236 No Blue Christmas In This Tiki Bar

Sunshine Tiki — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 09:33:04 +0000

Sunshine, Starshine and Kalani drop by the Zen Tiki Lounge for a little gift giving, cocktails and exotica holiday tunes. This is one of those podcast we dare not try to describe in words. But be sure to check out links to our friends below:

PopTiki.com for great hand made tiki mugs

Tiwaka Goes To Waikiki is a great new book, third in the series by Everett Peacock

The Revomatics new album is now on iTunes and for sale at their pretty groovy website

Kahuna Kevin has a great new cocktail book, second in his series. We are drinking our way though it right now!

Happy Holidays and Mahalo from all of us at The Zen Tiki Lounge Podcast

ZTL 235 Tiki Gifts For Tiki People, And Rum

Sunshine Tiki — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 04:22:06 +0000

December is up on us. That means it’s time for the annual ZTL tiki gift giving guide. As usual, we suggest music, mugs, books and wares from many of the friends we discover as a result of this podcast. We personally use and have everything we suggest. No duds here. Please check out the links below and get some of the great stuff from our tiki friends all over the country. This week isn’t just about gifts, its also the first week in many months that Pumpkin and Sunshine had a chance to be in the lounge together. The two original hosts of Zen Tiki Lounge act as if no time ever passed. And our show wouldn’t be complete without a great cocktail, this one is courtesy of Ken Kanaka of The Crazed Mugs. Coquito is a version of eggnog that comes to us from Cuba and has become popular in Florida. We think it could be a holiday favorite here in the lounge. Try the recipe below. Thanks for listening, tell a friend, find us on facebook, Google+ and Mahalo!

Tiki Gift Ideas for anyone:

Music: The Crazed Mugs, The Revomatics, Tiki Joes Ocean,

Tiki Mugs: Only the best at PopTiki.com, the offical mug of the Zen Tiki Lounge

Bar/Cocktail Books: Kahuna Kevin “Why is all the Rum gone”, get volumes 1 and 2. Over 100 outstanding recipes with superb illustration.

Books/Beach Reads: The Parrot Talks In Chocolate, In The Middle of the Third Planets Most Wonderful of Oceans, Death by facebook, Banana the fate of the fruit the changed the world, And a Bottle of Rum, Tiki Modern

Coquito (“little coconut”)

Ingredients

1 cup water
12 cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
1 inch-long piece of fresh ginger, peeled
1 15-ounce can of Coco Lopez
1 12-ounce can of Carnation Evaporated Milk
1 cup light rum (I use Cruzan)
Powdered cinnamon

Directions

Place water, cloves, cinnamon sticks and ginger in a small saucepan to create an infusion. Cook at medium heat until the mixture begins to boil.
After cooking, cover and let the infusion cool for 15 minutes. Remove cinnamon, cloves, and ginger.
Place the Coco Lopez, evaporated milk, rum and infusion in a blender. Cover and blend for 30 seconds.
Pour contents into a glass bottle with a cinnamon stick and refrigerate until cold.
Serve in 2-5 ounce glasses. Spinkle top with powdered cinnamon.

Like an egg nog, the flavor improves with time. It’s quite good freshly made, but a 14-28 day aging in the refrigerator does wonders for it.

ZTL 234 Holiday Songs With Exotic Flare

Sunshine Tiki — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 06:09:38 +0000

Sunshine Tiki is solo in the Zen Tiki Lounge this week. As promised, this is our annual holiday music podcast. I have chosen each song to tell a familiar story, a tune everyone knows, but with a more exotic flare and maybe some instruments you don’t here to often. Each of the artists played on this weeks show have their music available online for download. How much easier could it be? Just listen to the show and find it all online. Of course the holidays wouldn’t seem right without a cocktail or two. So check out the recipes/drink ideas below to add some additional merriment to your gatherings. Next week we will be back with our holiday gift giving special. Just in time to help you find something special for the tiki fan in your circles. Enjoy and Mahalo!

Sunshines Very Spicy Holiday Rum

1.75L Gold Rum (Cruzan or Bacardi work well)

2 Vanilla Beans sliced length wise

10 whole cloves

12 Allspice berries cracked

3 Cinnamon sticks cracked in half

Put it all in the bottle. Turn upside down once each day. On day 5 use a permanent coffee filter or cheese cloth to strain out the bits. Remove the cloves. Put everything back in. On day 7 remove the allspice bits. The cinnamon and vanilla bean stay in forever, building more character. After a total of 14-21 days you are ready to enjoy this very spicy rum. Great with equal parts pomegranate juice and fresh OJ. Also great used in a rum cake recipe. Try it on the rocks or make your own holiday concoction.

ZTL 233 The Crazed Mugs And PopTiki

Sunshine Tiki — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 06:27:36 +0000

Aloha Listeners! Sunshine and Starshine are here in the Zen Tiki Lounge on our last podcast before Turkey Day. We have some great music for ya by The Crazed Mugs, their album Find Forbidden Island. Ken Kanaka was nice enough to send us a disc and we couldn’t help but play our favorite tracks on this weeks show. Be sure to grab your own CD by clicking the link and showing The Crazed Mugs your Mahalo! We also have a new mug courtesy of PopTiki.com, the offiical tiki mug of the Zen Tiki Lounge. Our Lovely new mug featured on this weeks show art is the Hei Tiki, a deep purple Maori figure that holds plenty of rum. With music and booze flowing we jumped right into turkey day shenanigans, perhaps a bit too much politics and started our Xmas lists. Do you have as much rum on your list as Sunshine? What better way to get the more expensive rum you just haven’t added to your bar yet? And one more thing to do with that rum, make ice cream. But freezing liquor isn’t easy. So you need this awesome book “Ice Cream Happy Hour” that shows you the science of boozy ice cream making and 50 recipes to go along with it. Now the holidays really will be bright! Theres a lot more squeezed in there so enjoy the show and see you after Thanksgiving.

ZTL 232 Stuff Your Turkey With Twinkies, Rum And Marshmallows?

Sunshine Tiki — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 07:59:10 +0000

We never intended that this weeks show become Thanksgiving centric. But, it did. Sunshine and Kalani talk about odd things to stuff inside your turkey including twinkies, pina colada marshmallows and a hefty amount of rum soaked cranberry stuffing. Yummm. Sunshine gives a few other ideas to livin up that boring turkey day dinner and add a little tropical flare. Our drink this week is an old favorite, Kalani’s Punani. Go back and check the show notes from podcast #193 for the spicy rum recipe that you need for this cocktail. And in podcast #196 you will find the drink recipe. With rum in our tummies and dreams of turkey we dove into current events. Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain and Rick Perry are up to more shenanigans. And how about that Penn State BS!? Yet more reasons to frequent your local watering hole. We throw in a a good deal of listener email and questions as well. Enjoy the show and cheers.

Don’t forget to get your limited edition Big Orange Richard from PopTiki.com. Listen to this show to find out how, while supplies last.

ZTL 231 The Big Orange Tiki Mug You Must Have!

Sunshine Tiki — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 04:38:39 +0000

With three of us in the lounge this week, things get loud. But for good reason. After a good wait we are very pleased to announce that PopTiki.com has kindly crafted their hot selling Moai mug in a brazen orange just for fans of the Zen Tiki Lounge. Listen to this podcast to get the details on how to get yours. Kalani is adept at using colorful metaphors to describe both Richard and her fondness for the libations we put inside him. One such libation is a new creation from Kahuna Kevin, who has another cocktail book about to hit the internet. In his first book Kahuna Kevin’s “Why is the rum gone?”, we were introduced to dozens of fabulous cocktail recipes with tantalizing pictures sure to tickle anyones taste buds. We were lucky enough to try one of the newest cocktails form volume two on this weeks podcast. But, you can’t get the recipe until the book is released later this year. Click the link to pre order your copy NOW. And thats just a taste of whats in store in this episode. Enjoy the podcast and tell a friend.

ZTL 230 Ghadafi And Bachmann Stop By For Halloween

Sunshine Tiki — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 06:33:01 +0000

Show notes coming tomorrow.