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Zombie cocktail4/10/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() Tiki bars are now opening up all over the country, in fact the city I live in is about get their first Tiki Bar. Although Tiki restaurant’s are primarily a thing of the past, the modern cocktail revolution has brought new life to these once forgotten drinks. ![]() Across most of America, who knows what passed as a Zombie, it certainly wasn’t what Don would have his bartenders mix up from coded bottles. The Zombie became just another drink on a menu in “tacky” Polynesian themed restaurants. It wasn’t until the late 1960’s when the counter-culture that killed Tiki drinks and cocktails caused the Zombie begin to disappear. The Zombie and many of Don’s other cocktails could be found throughout the United States in most Polynesian restaurants. Tiki drinks continued to increase in popularity as the fad grew throughout the 40’s and 50’s. The Zombie grew in popularity after a bartender attempted to copy the famous drink from Don the Beachcombers serving it during the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Don was always secretive about his concoctions, labeling bottles of alcohol, mixed juices, and syrups with numbers and letters, and trusting his bartenders with only limited coded recipes of patterns and symbols. Most utterly failed when attempting to copy his Zombie, due largely to the fact that there is no printed or documented recipe of the Zombie. With the growing popularity of Polynesian restaurants, many people attempted to copy Don’s restaurant style and cocktails. The businessman came back to Don’s a few weeks later and when Don asked how he liked the drink the customer replied “I felt like the living dead.” Don the Beachcomber, of Hollywood, Chicago, and anywhere in the South Pacific, is the originator of this famous drink.” The Zombie was created in 1934 reportedly as a hangover cure for a businessman who had an important meeting to get to. Don is quoted saying, "I originated and have served this 'thing' since 1934.Anyone that says otherwise is a liar!" Despite their differences, Don’s main rival, and the other founding father of Tiki drinks, Vic Bergeron (aka Trader Vic), conceded the origin of the Zombie to Don Beach stating, "There has been much argument about the origination of the Zombie, but credit should be given where credit is due. The Zombie was invented by one of the founding fathers of Tiki drinks, Don Beach. This Tiki drink was truly the lost Holy Grail of Tiki drinks, that is until Tiki crusader Jeff “Beachbum” Berry uncovered some of the most authentic recipes for this cocktail known to date. Instead the Zombie is a high-proof complex rum rhapsody, a mix of many rums and fruit juices that has had as many variations as bartenders who have attempted to make them. Although the Zombie cocktail sounds horrific, it really has nothing to do with Halloween or the rotten-flesh, brain eating stars of many films, books, and video games. Also with premiere of The Walking Dead season 4 this weekend, why not become a Zombie yourself while watching it. With Halloween approaching, I figured there should be a Halloween themed cocktail, hence this weeks Not Cocktail of the Week: The Zombie. ![]()
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