Last night for Valentine’s Day, or maybe because it was Monday night and my husband and I were both too exhausted to cook, we walked over to our neighborhood tiki bar for rum-filled cocktails and an island-inspired dinner.

What is it about a tiki cocktail that is so good? Is it the fruity flavors that mask the deadly amounts of alcohol in one drink? Is it the fun colors that reflect sunsets or tropical blue waters? For me, I think it’s the ability to take me away to a tropical island even in the middle of February. Granted, it was in the 80s yesterday, but still, a typical February day here in southern California can be as frigid as the low 60s.

Each sip of a rum-filled drink brings me a little closer to feeling warm sand between my toes, watching blue waves crash upon the shore, and smelling the coconut scent of Hawaiian Tropics in the air. *sigh*

Is it summer yet?

If you need a little taste of paradise, here’s a recipe I made in a tiki cocktail class:

Viv’s Venom
1 oz. silver rum
1/2 oz. ginger liqueur
1/2 oz. jasmine liqueur
1/2 oz. cherry juice
1/2 oz. orange juice
1 oz. lemon juice
1 oz. simple syrup
2 dashes Chinese Five Spice bitters
4 dashes saffron bitters

It’s quite a few ingredients, I know. Okay, you can make your own from this formula we learned at the Greenbar Distillery in Los Angeles. 2 oz. alcohols (mix and match as you like), 1 oz. fruit juice, 1 oz. sweetener, 1 oz. sour (lemon, lime, etc.), plus about 6 dashes of other flavorings. Cheers!