So here is my tiki bar saga. I grew up drinking from a set of tiki mugs my grandmother bought for herself in the late 50/early 60, and eventually gave to my parents, who had it in our bay house on Galveston Island. My brothers and I always loved these tiki mugs. And then in 2002 when my younger brother and I were still single, we went on a trip to LA together, were staying at the Beverily Hills Hilton, which at that time still had a Trader Vic's, and we loved its kitschyness. We also both loved the Adventurer's Club in Pleasure Island in Orlando.
My mom knew we coveted her mugs, so about the time I got married she bought each of us a new set of tiki mugs. They weren't nearly as cool as the vintage ones we all coveted, but it was still nice to have a set of tiki mugs. Except my set got lost in a move. My wife and I talked about buying a set to replace them, but it just never happened, partly because the mugs seemed so expensive, often $20 a piece, which would make for an expensive set.
Fast forward to 2013, I'm at a business conference in Anaheim, I have a night to myself, I go to Downtown Disney for dinner, follow the signs to Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar, have dinner there, bring home a souvenir tiki mug. That mug became the mug I grabbed whenever I wanted a tropical drink, and my wife and I said "from now on, we'll get a tiki mug as a souvenir whenever we go places that sell them, and we'll build our own mixed set, which would be even cooler than a matching set." Except that never happened either, so I just had the one mug.
Then quarantine happens, and I have a lot of time on my hands, I happen to stumble on a website for supplies for bars, and they have a section for tiki bar supplies since that is kind of "in" again right now. I find they have good quality ceramic tiki mugs between $6 and $8 a piece. I order three, and now I have a set of 4. I share this news with my brother, who lets me know he happened to find a website that sells vintage housewares, and they are selling the exact same tiki mugs that we coveted as kids. So now I have one of those, but I also have a set of 5, which I rationalize to myself is awkward for entertaining, and then I come up with a small gathering for the next weekend that will be tiki themed, with 3 couples (including ourselves), so go back to the bar supply website to order one more. But then I realize the shipping is really expensive for just one mug, and I realize that Amazon Prime sells these mugs, and even though they are about twice the cost as they are on the bar website, with the free shipping, if you are only ordering one, it's actually cheaper to order from Amazon, so I do. But then Amazon's estimated delivery date looks like it might be too late for the party, and I'd be one mug short. So I go back to the bar products website to order a backup mug. And then of course a.) that means I would have 7 mugs, an odd number, and b.) shipping cost is the same whether I order one or two mugs, so I should really order two mugs. Or so I rationalize to myself.
And so, I finally have my mixed set of tiki mugs (forgive the poor image quality). The one on the far right is the vintage mug that is exactly like those in my grandmother's set, the tall narrower brown one in the center is the one I got at Trader Sam's at Disneyland, and all the rest are from barproducts.com (with the exception of one from Amazon, but made by the same company as the barproducts.com mugs, "Barconic.")
Tiki mugs by
mmyers1976, on Flickr