Summer 2025 - And Then Even MORE Cigar Time & Tiki Cocktails

 Tuesday, July 29, 2025

Today a Hoyo de Monterrey Excalibur.

A couple more Orange Speedos. The orange pop was used up so I added back the orgeat and topped it off with blackberry Bubly water. Looked a bit more yellow-y than orange-y. Maybe next time I'll use grapefruit juice rather than orange juice to orange it up a bit more. 

Esquival for cocktail music. 

Summer 2025 - Even More Cigar Time & Tiki Cocktails

  Sunday, July 27, 2025

More cigars today. In fact, 3 little Macanudos. 

Hot as hell but beautifully sunny. 

Chilled out with my signature cocktail. 

Listened to The Exotic Moods of Les Baxter, a great collection compiled by Capitol Records. 

Summer 2025 - Cigar Time & Tiki Cocktails

Wednesday, July 23, 2025

Summer's in full swing and I've appreciated the time to relax and smoke lots of cigars. My cigar of choice today was a La Flor Dominicana also known a "the digger." It's one of my favorites and can take a couple-plus hours to smoke.

Set up shop in the garage and lit up shortly before 4 p.m.  Dewpoint and humidity were quite high so saying it was sultry is more than appropriate. 

                         

Made a tiki drink, the Joey's Orange Speedo. It goes really well with tropical-type weather. 

I'm continually playing with and slightly adjusting the recipe. This time I used 2 ounces of Captain Morgan spiced rum, an ounce and a half of orange curacao, one ounce of falernum, and half an ounce of orgeat. After adding these ingredients I eyeballed how much liquid was in the glass and then added an equal amount of orange juice. Next I added a few ice cubes an then, new to the recipe, I topped it off with Sunkist Zero Sugar. 

I gotta say that although the Sunkist orange pop made it a little sweeter than I like it really gave it the color I've wanted. 

Next time I think I'll leave out the orgeat to take the sweetness level down a skosh. 

Listened to one of my favorite Ultra-Lounge collections, Mondo Exotica. I remember when I first listened to this back in the late 90s and thinking that all the bird and animal calls were kinda weird but after getting used to that I found it quite wonderful and became a fan of exotica music.

Due to the length of time it takes to smoke a digger I also listened to a rather lenthy collection of Martin Denny music titled The Exotic Sounds of Martin Denny. Back in the days of CDs this would have been a two disc set. 

The combination of the sultry weather, tiki drinks, a cigar, and exotica music made for a fun summer afternoon. 

Big Kahuna Bash 2024 Part 4

Saturday, July 27, 2024

Next up was King Custom and the Cruisers. 

King Kustom and the Cruisers is the name of Bill & Ernie Batson’s 1970s outfit; they played mostly ’50s covers with a lotta Elvis & Conway thown in. They were fantastic. Simply fantastic. 

It was nice the humidity broke a little bit as we were watching the bands. We also picked up a nice breeze which was really pleasant.

Big Kahuna Bash 2024 Part 3

 Saturday, July 27, 2024

For my third drink I got the Big Kahuna which the menu described as: "A tasty blend of dark rum, citrus, honey and passion fruit. Who's the Big Kahuna? You're the Big Kahuna!" Dale got another Coors Light. Please note: Dale and I were both drinking lots of water to combat the heat and humidity. We met a nice woman named Tea who was sitting next to us at the bar. It was fun chatting with her. 

We then headed out to listen to the Swongos. 

The Swongos are an instrumental surf, spy, and exotica band. We've seen them before and they never disappoint. 

I downloaded some of their music. 

The Intoxicats

 Friday, July 26, 2024

The Intoxicats also covered and presented a pretty faithful version of Kim Wilde's Kids In America. Love 80s music. I observed lots of old people in the crowd and then realized they were the same age as I am. 

The Intoxicats - Beachballs

 Friday, July 26, 2024

Oh and there were TONS of beachballs. I was able to launch one onto the stage.

Before bed Dale said, "What a fun night." I wholeheartedly agree!

Tickets Purchased

 

The tickets for the Big Kahuna Bash have been purchased. 

As have tickets for the Intoxicats. 

Spring Break 2024 - The Tilted Tiki

Thursday, April 4, 2024

Dale surprised me by wanting make a trip to the Tilted Tiki in Stillwater this Spring Break. We were there by 4:30 and it was still pretty quiet. They had opened at 4:00. 

I started out with the Painkiller. The menu description said, "Soothe yourself with a tropical vacation in a glass. British Navy rum, coconut, orange and nutmeg."

Dale had wine. 

A couple of large video screens showed undersea life. 

We started out with the coconut shrimp. It was very hot and very delicious. 

For my second drink I orderd the Mai Tai which the menu stated was "Trader Vic's drink of legend! Lime juice, almond, orange liqueur, and hearty Rum." It came in the cool gold metalic tiki mug shown above. 

Dale ordered more wine. 

For dinner I had the tiki burger and Dale had the grilled cheese. The Jorgensen's provided live music. I especially liked their version of Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby. 

Coolish out but a beautifully sunny day. Would be fun to come back when it's a bit warmer and the live music is outside. 

Downtown Stillwater.

We both had a great time. 

Big Kahuna Bash 5 - Part 5

Saturday, July 29, 2023

We stayed until about 5:30 and got to catch a little bit of Paulie on the Lanai's set. He's a solo act who sings and plays the ukulele. He had lots of stories about the Hawaiian music scene years ago back on the islands. We would have loved to stay for the Intoxicats but family obligations called. Thankfully we got to see the Intoxicats a couple years ago. 

Joey's Orange Speedo with a Variation

Saturday, September 18, 2021

Perfect afternoon for a cigar out back. 

For cocktail hour I made a Joey's Orange Speedo but with a variation.

Instead of making it on the rocks and topping it off with strawberry Bubly I shook the ingredients in a cocktail shaker, strained it, added not ice and did not top it off. 

I listed to some Shelly Manne...

...but also some new Abba. Forty years since their last album. Wow.