Mr. Bali Hai
A fruity and balanced rum cocktail ∙ Shake ∙ 3 min ∙ 14% ABV ∙
Mr. Bali Hai is a shaken tiki cocktail of Jamaican aged rum, white rum, coffee liqueur, pineapple and lemon juice, served over crushed ice.
Ingredients
1
Servings
Garnish
Instructions for 1 serving
- Pre-chill a glass
- Shake all ingredients with ice: Jamaican aged rum 45 mlWhite rum 30 mlCrème de Café liqueur 25 mlPineapple juice 45 mlLemon juice 30 mlSugar syrup 10 ml
- Strain into the glass or tiki mug filled with crushed ice
- Garnish with a pineapple wedge, a mint sprig and three coffee beans
History
Mr. Bali Hai takes its name from a tiki statue that stood at the entrance of the Bali Hai restaurant on Shelter Island in San Diego, where the drink served as a house specialty. The restaurant began as a location of the Christian's Hut chain, opened in the early 1950s and inspired by the Mutiny on the Bounty film's South Pacific imagery. Tom Ham later took over the struggling location and renamed it Bali Hai around 1954, after the song from South Pacific.
As is typical of tiki-bar house drinks, the exact recipe was never fixed and shifted over the decades. Tiki historian Jeff "Beachbum" Berry documented a version dating to the 1970s, made with coffee liqueur, which he encountered on visits to the restaurant in the 1980s and later published in his books, including Intoxica! (2002). By contrast, the Mr. Bali Hai served at the restaurant in more recent years has instead used a blackberry brandy, reflecting how the recipe kept evolving at the source.
FAQ
What is a Bali Hai drink?
Mr. Bali Hai is a tiki cocktail named for the statue at the entrance of the Bali Hai restaurant in San Diego, where it was a house specialty. Jamaican aged rum and white rum are shaken with coffee liqueur, pineapple juice, lemon juice, and sugar syrup, then strained over crushed ice.
