Card Night and Banana Splits

Dale and Carol came over to the Tiki Hut on Friday night for pizza and cards. After dinner, we broke out the cards, beer and a new drink that the Tiki Gal and I created the previous weekend.

I wanted to make a banana flavored drink but I wasn't happy with any of the recipes I found online or in my library of cocktail books so I decided to make my own. I always enlist the Tiki Gal's help when working on a new drink because she is definitely going to give me an honest opinion one way or another. 

My first attempt included pineapple juice, orange juice, Creme De Banana, Creme De Cacao and Myer's Dark Rum because, well, Myer's is good in everything. The drink was not great and tasted a little bitter. Like a trooper, the Tiki Gal volunteered to drink it anyway. I thought maybe the Creme De Cacao was causing the problem so I used Amaretto instead. Apparently, however, the Creme De Cacao wasn't the problem because the drink was still bitter. Like a trooper, I volunteered to drink the rest of the drink anyway.

For the next attempt, we replaced the Myer's with Captain Morgan's Parrot Bay Coconut Rum and that did the trick. The drink was sweet and heavily influenced by the banana but the Amaretto cut the sweetness enough that it wasn't cloying. Due to our dedication to making better boat drinks, we each had a cup of the new and improved version - purely for research purposes, of course.

On Friday night, I made this new drink, tentatively called a Banana Split, for the Tiki Gal and Carol. The recipe is:

Banana Split

Color: Yellow.

Ingredients: 2.5 oz. orange juice, 2.5 oz. pineapple juice, 1 oz. coconut rum, 1 oz. creme de banana, 1 oz. Amaretto

Taste: The drink is sweet with a definite banana taste but not cloying.

Comments: Carol said it might be her new favorite drink.

Dale and I also drank a beer or two.

Trappistes Rochefort

Color: Unpasteurized apple cider.

Skunkiness: 0 skunks. Carol declared that this beer has the most complex smell of any she has sniffed.

Taste: High alcohol content with a hint of coffee. Dale decided it would be his new breakfast beer. Sweet and complex.

Comments: This beer had a significant amount of suspended particles. Carol did some quick research and found that these particles were yeast. The beer was good but we're not too sure about the yeast issue.

Rating: 4 pints out of 5.

Jaegermeister

Comments: Not a beer. See New Year's Eve entry for information on Jaegermeister. Dale knew that I had a tough week at work so he brought out the big guns. I'm a little scared to say that Jaegermeister is growing on me.

New Belgium Abbey

Color: Dark amber.

Skunkiness: 0 skunks but a strong malty smell. Carol thought it smelled like a Whopper in a glass.

Taste: Extremely malty taste. As Fat Tire is to hops, Abbey is to malt.

Comments: If you enjoy malt, this is the beer for you. Otherwise, it is not impressive.

Rating: 3 pints.

Spaten Optimator

Comments: See McNellie's for a full description. Optimator is just as good from a bottle as it is from a tap.

Rating: 4.5 pints.

The card playing didn't go too well for the guys this week. I won at Cutthroat but the girls won pitch and the Tiki Gal kicked our rears at Oh Hell! This just proves that luck can trump skill.

McNellies

The Tiki Gal and I joined Dale and Carol for dinner last night at McNellie's Public House in Tulsa. We really like McNellie's because they serve good food and they have over 350 draught and bottled beers. McNellie's is exactly what I think a pub should be: warm and cozy with much laughter. It is the perfect antidote to a bad Monday at work and the Tiki Man was in serious need of it last night.

Most Monday nights are Pint Nights. On Pint Night, beers from a selected brewer are served in a glass that you get to keep. Pint Night starts at 5 and lasts until the glasses are gone. We've missed out on glasses by arriving at 5:30 before so Pint Night is extremely popular. Last night, the featured brewer was the Left Hand Brewing Company and, maybe due to the MLK holiday, McNellie's was not as busy as usual. 

We were seated right away and ordered Left Hand's Snowbound Ale. Apparently, Snowbound Ale is really good because McNellie's had run out so we ordered Sawtooth Ale instead. The Tiki Gal and Carol, as I've mentioned before, are not beer drinkers so they ordered wine. (I think the Beer Journal may convert them, however, because they tend to try our beers more and more now. Before long, Dale and I will be lucky to get a few sips after the girls have finished tasting whatever we happen to be drinking.)

During dinner, the conversation turned to a phenomenon that occurs in both of our households. Dale and I discovered that neither of us can fold towels adequately. Not only are our towels not aesthetically pleasing, they do not fit in the cabinets correctly. The Tiki Gal and Carol both confessed to refolding the towels after we've taken great time and effort to fold them incorrectly. From a guys standpoint, I think that if the towel doesn't fall out on the floor when the closet door is opened, it is folded and put away correctly but, like with most things, I must be wrong. Also, Dale and I found out that we don't load the dishwasher correctly either. "I can fit so much more in there my way," was the excuse we were given for the rearrangement of our carefully loaded dishes. On the other hand, the Tiki Gal did say I load the forks and spoons the right way so I have that going for me.

The beers Dale and I tried were:

Left Hand Sawtooth Ale

Color: Amber. (the girls say it is a pretty, copper color)

Skunkiness: 0 skunks.

Taste: Smooth with a distinct hop flavor.

Comments: Sawtooth Ale is not complex. A decent beer but not remarkable.

Ranking: 3 pints.

Spaten Optimator

Color: Dark amber. (the girls can't decide between Coke and Dr. Pepper coloration)

Skunkiness: 0 skunks.

Taste: Sweet, rich and creamy. Very good. Has a molasses smell and taste.

Comments: Dale and I really enjoyed this double bock and so did the girls. Carol, who usually sticks with one small sip, tried this one several times. Dale said it was her first ever two sip beer. Carol did find that you should not chase Optimator with Merlot, however.

Ranking: 4.5 pints. (Carol gives it a 5 on her beer ranking scale of 1 or 5)

After dinner, we decided we liked the Spaten Optimator so much we would try to find it at our favorite liquor store, the Grand Vin Bottle Shop. The Grand Vin has a great selection of beers and wines and the staff is extremely knowledgeable about what they sell. If you are looking for a good, uncommon beer or wine in the Tulsa area, the Grand Vin is the place to go.

We did find the Spaten Optimator so we grabbed a six pack. After some consultation, Dale and I decided the girls may have liked the Optimator a little too much so we got another six pack, just in case. We also bought a few other beers that we wanted to try and bottles of wine for the girls.

As we drove home, I realized my mood had improved greatly over the course of the evening. Good food, good beer (what I got of it, anyway), and good company are just what I needed.

New Year's Eve

Carol and Dale and their children joined us at the Tiki Hut to celebrate New Year's Eve a few weeks ago. We've turned New Year's Eve into quite a tradition but our celebrations got off to a bit of a rocky start. 

The first year after we started spending time with Dale and Carol, they invited us to their house for New Year's Eve. The evening started off well with our usual mix of music, cards and drinks. As midnight drew closer, Carol pulled out some lovely crystal Champagne flutes that were a gift from Dale's mom. Each flute had a different symbol signifying a blessing you would have that year if you drank from it such as prosperity, love, and health. We spent a good deal of time negotiating over which flute each of us would use. Dale and I were both angling for the love flute because, what the heck, it couldn't hurt to try. Little did we know at that time that the health flute should have been much more popular than the others.

Dale pulled a bottle of champagne from the refrigerator and filled each flute. Now, I must explain that we were all much younger and less worldly at that point in our lives so we didn't even blink an eye when we heard that the champagne was a bottle that Dale and Carol had saved from their wedding nearly fifteen years before. We had heard that wines got better as they aged so we assumed that champagne did the same. It turns out, we were wrong.

If you ever have a chance to drink vintage champagne, you should decline politely. If someone manages to sneak it to you anyway, the good news is that you probably won't suffer any lasting damage. Vintage champagne is also a good test of a new friendship. If you can all remain friends after such an experience, there isn't anything that you can't get through.

We all laugh about the vintage champagne each New Year's Eve but I am now in charge of all champagne and sparkling wine purchases. We are still drinking out of the champagne flutes that may or may not bestow blessings on the drinker. A few years ago, we were trying to remember which flute bestowed which blessing. We could remember prosperity, health and love but we couldn't seem to remember the fourth blessing. This may have had something to do with the extra potent batch of Margaritas I had made. Anyway, Dale is extremely good on the drums and guitar. He's been in professional bands with gigs and groupies - at least Carol anyway - and everything. The Tiki Man has so little musical ability that his children laugh him off of Guitar Hero, so I joked that maybe the fourth flute was the rhythm glass and maybe it would help with my musical deficiencies. (Also, I had tried the love flute a few years in a row and I can report that it does not work.)

I drank from the flute we called the rhythm glass for two years but it hadn't helped my problem at all. This year, I was going to try the love flute again but Dale and Carol surprised me with a gift. It was a lovely glass inscribed with the word "Rhythm", spelled correctly and everything. I was, and am, very grateful to my friends for trying to help with what may turn out to be an insurmountable lack of talent. I drank champagne from my Rhythm glass this year and will drink from it every year until we see progress.

I had put together a music playlist earlier in the evening that included pretty much every good song I own. I didn't think we would get through all 297 songs but it is always better to have too much music than not enough (the girls get testy when something goes wrong with the music.) The playlist also included my latest Jimmy Buffett albums: A1A, Son of a Son of Sailor and Havana Daydreamin. If you like Buffett and you don't have one of these, get it. They are all very good.

We played our typical card games. Carol won at cutthroat and the girls won at pitch. Dale and I were getting worried because the night is usually pretty grim if we lose at pitch. We started to rally when Dale beat Carol by one point to win Oh Hell! Carol was not happy with this turn of events and there was even some talk of faulty scoring since Dale is the designated scorekeeper. Nothing could be proven, however, so we started a game of Spades amid much grumbling. Dale and I usually try to avoid Spades because, for some reason, we typically don't do well. Tonight was our night, however, and we pulled out the split for the evening by winning handily. 

The girls were in the mood for boat drinks so I made them one of their favorites and a new drink they had never tried. The details follow:

Tiki Gal's Tropical Punch

Color: Red

Ingredients: 3 oz. pineapple juice, 3 oz. cranberry juice, 1 oz. Mango Rum, 1 oz. Myer's dark rum, dash of grenadine.

Taste: Sweet and tangy.

Comments: The Tiki Gal invented this one evening when I was making Mango Margaritas. It is now one of the favorites at the Tiki Bar.

Bolero

Color: Red

Ingredients: Myer's dark rum, brandy, fresh lime juice, orange juice, simple syrup, grenadine.

Taste: The combination of orange and lime juice is better than it sounds. Slightly acidic and gently sweet.

Comments: This is a recipe for the Bolero I found in the Ultimate Bar Book by Mittie Hellmich that I altered slightly. If you are interested in mixing drinks at home, I highly recommend this book.

At midnight, we toasted with our traditional non-vintage champagne. A lady in a liquor store recommended this to me several years ago and we've had it every New Year's Eve since.

Sigura Viudas Sparkling Wine

Color: Champagne, of course.

Taste: Crisp and dry with a refreshing finish.

Comments: This sparkling wine from Spain - only sparkling wines from the Champagne region of France can be called Champagne, as we learned on a cruise last year - is very good. None of us are champagne fans but we all enjoy this one very much.

Carol drank from the Peace flute this year. Dale drank from the Prosperity flute. The Tiki Gal drank from the Love flute (don't get excited, I already explained that it doesn't work) and I drank from my new Rhythm glass.

I had discovered a tiny bottle of Jaegermeister hiding behind a bottle of tequila so Dale and I decided we would drink it. Dale had had "an experience" with Jaegermeister before but I had never tried it so we put it in the freezer. We poured it into some small glasses and each had about half a shot. 

Jaegermeister

Color: Cough syrup brown.

Skunkiness: 0 skunks, however, this herbal liqueur has a mighty aftertaste that will climb back up your throat and nasal cavity much like a large bite of wasabi.

Taste: Initial crisp, licorice taste followed by the wasabi experience.

Comments: Once the aftertaste goes away, it is not bad. Truthfully, it is not all that good either.

Dale and I also drank beer.

Super Secret Gray Market Beer

Color: Caramel

Skunkiness: 0 skunks.

Taste: Heavy hop flavor and detectable alcohol content, but not bitter. Malty, smooth finish. 

Comments: This beer may not be allowed in this country and, if it is not, we guessed at the taste based on the color and shape of the bottle.

Ranking: 4.5 pints of 5. One of our highest rated beers of all time. 

Boddington's Pub Ale

Color: Light gold.

Skunkiness: 0 skunks, although the girls thought it did smell beer-like.

Taste: Low hopitude. Mild and mellow. A slight honey taste as it warms.

Comments: This is a very forgettable beer. There just wasn't much character, however, it did foam all over the Tiki Bar when we opened it so that was nice.

Ranking: 2.5 pints.

Red Stripe

Color: Light gold.

Skunkiness: 0 skunks.

Taste: Crisp and snappy although we were a bit disappointed. The last time we had Red Stripe was at a swim-up bar at a resort in Jamaica. When you are waist deep in a pool in the middle of the Caribbean, Red Stripe is the best beer on earth. Sitting in the Tiki Hut in Oklahoma, however, it is not quite the same.

Comments: The girls were amazed at the extreme fizziness of Red Stripe.

Ranking: 3.5 pints (except at a swim-up bar in Jamaica where it rates significantly higher.)

Chimay Tripple

Color: Honey. (The girls say it is the color of butterscotch but they only get to rate skunkiness.)

Skunkiness: 0 skunks.

Taste: Hints of caramel and hops. Very complex and rich.

Comments: Chimay Tripple was a great choice for our first beer of 2009. Even though it was the fourth beer of the night, increasing its strength-of-schedule for you college football fans, it was still extremely good.

Ranking: 4.5 pints.

Card Night

A certain depressing event (that shall not be named) occurred on Thursday night so I was feeling a little down on Friday. My mood picked up when the Tiki Gal called me at work to tell me we would be having a card night with our friends Dale and Carol (fictitious names are being used to protect the innocent.)

Card nights started several years ago and typically have the same basic outline. We meet at either the Tiki Hut or Dale and Carol's house. Dale or I prepare a mix of music for the evening. (We've progressed from CDs in multi-disc machines that semi-shuffled the music to iPod playlists over the years - a huge jump in the quality of the song shuffle.)  We prepare drinks for the girls - and sometimes ourselves - and we play cards. We've tried many games over the years but we've settled on the following as our main games: cutthroat pitch, pitch, oh hell, spades and hearts. We almost always play cutthroat , pitch and oh hell. Depending on the hour, we sometimes play hearts (if Dale and I choose) or spades (if the girls choose.) With music in the background, we play cards, talk, drink, and laugh. For those couples out there, especially those with kids, I can't express strongly enough how wonderful it is to have adult friends to spend time with. Spending time with our friends, even when we have all of our kids there, allows us to decompress from the work week and put things in perspective. As we've gotten to know Dale and Carol better, we can now discuss pretty much anything over the card table - and sometimes we do. I strongly encourage you to make a "play date" for yourselves if you don't already.

The music mix is very important to all of us. We listen to a variety of music but the mix always includes some Jimmy Buffett. Dale owns most - if not all - of the music Jimmy has produced and I own most of it. We also throw in classic rock, 80's hair rock, Jack Johnson, a few country artists (Garth Brooks, George Strait and a few others), and whatever else looks good that evening. Dale has an extensive collection of music so he always puts some interesting stuff in the mix.

The drinks are equally important. We don't drink to excess but we like to have a few drinks each as we play. Over the years, I've really gotten into making and trying new mixed drinks. Most of these are of the boat drink variety: pina coladas, margaritas, and anything with rum. I will talk about these at some point as well. Dale and I also enjoy drinking beer and the girls like wine. The girls do not like beer. This is an important fact to remember going forward. Dale's and my taste in beer deserve an explanation.

In college, we both drank whatever was cheap and/or available. Now that we're older, we prefer to drink beer that we did not have in college. For this reason, we stay away from the bigger commercial beers popular here such as Budweiser, Coors, Miller, etc. As we've drunk many different beers over the years, we've also had trouble remembering which beers we've tried and what we thought of them. Therefore, we started a beer journal a few months ago. We use the journal to record our thoughts and rankings of the beers we drink. We've looked at some of the beer ranking sites on the Internet and we most definitely do not want to compete with those. Our palates are obviously not refined enough to pick out the licorice or molasses highlights in a lovely amber ale. What we do know, however, is what we think tastes good so that is what we record. Everyone has their own tastes, likes and dislikes. If you try these beers and agree with us, we are happy for you. If, however, you think we are nuts and couldn't taste our way out of a paper bag, we're still happy for you but we just don't care. These rankings represent what we like and you won't change our minds.

On Friday night, the Tiki Gal and I went to Dale and Carol's. Dale already had the music going when we arrived. The girls were both tired so they were drinking wine - Merlot for Carol and Pinot Grigio for the Tiki Gal. Dale and I were drinking beer. 

The card playing didn't go too well for Dale and I. Carol won cutthroat in an historically quick beat down. Pitch is a team game and we always play girls against guys (this mirrors the rest of our lives as well, it seems) and the girls beat us soundly. The Tiki Man did manage to avoid a skunking of the guys by pulling out a win in oh hell (a deviously fun game.)

Dale and I had three different beers and their rankings follow:

New Belgium Blue Paddle

Color: Pale golden. (the girls called it a cloudy urine color but, as mentioned above, the girls don't like beer so their opinions should be discounted)

Skunkiness: 0 skunks. (The girls determine the skunkiness factor - one of their secret joys.)

Taste: We detected a smooth flavor with a distinct hoppiness. The beer is good but somewhat one dimensional with nothing much beyond the hoppiness.

Comments: We also noted that some bottles must contain more than others as Dale's glass emptied much quicker than mine. Another theory, put forth by Carol, was that maybe Dale had a hard week at work. New Belgium makes one of our very favorite beers, Fat Tire, so we wanted to like Blue Paddle more than we actually did.

Ranking: 3.25 pints out of 5.

Paulaner Oktoberfest Marzen

Color: Amber.

Skunkiness: 0 skunks.

Taste: Malty and sweet with a hint of brown sugar. Very smooth and drinkable.

Comments: It seems that every time Dale and I have this beer, we lose at cards and the girls get a little cocky about it. Even if there is some connection, we like this beer too much to give it up. If we have to take a beating every now and then, so be it. Also, the girls make a big deal out of not liking beer but they always manage to taste whichever beer we are drinking. They both said that if they absolutely had to drink a beer, this one would be their choice.

Ranking: 3.5 pints out of 5.

Paulaner Salvator Double Bock

Color: Amber

Skunkiness: 0 skunks.

Taste: The high hop-level makes it rich and zesty. Heavy and malty with a smooth finish.

Comments: This is one of out top rated beers so far. We've tried several double bocks and this is our favorite, even above the Ayinger Celebrator that tends to get higher ratings in other reviews. Unfortunately, we can't find this beer in our area. We have to get it when we go on trips out-of-state. It is so good, however, we will make up reasons to drive to Texas so we can bring some back.

Ranking: 4.5 pints out of 5.

Welcome to the Tiki Bar

As the song says, the tiki bar is open. Unfortunately, I'm not writing from a tiki bar. I don't own a tiki bar. Actually, there probably isn't a tiki bar within hundreds - if not thousands of miles - of northeastern Oklahoma where I live. I've found, however, that I really enjoy warm weather, beaches, oceans, Jimmy Buffett, cocktails and beer (not necessarily in that order.) My dream, then, is to own a tiki bar on a beach where I can serve drinks to like-minded folks while listening to Jimmy Buffett and Jack Johnson. Until I can make this dream a reality, however, I will spend some of my spare time writing about the things I listed above. I will also write about sports at times. My wife (the Tiki Gal) and I enjoy playing cards, drinking cocktails and beer, and the friendship of a great couple in our hometown. We call evenings when we get together Card Nights and I will be describing the drinks, beer, and results of these as well.

Today, I am anxiously watching the clock as the time nears for the National Championship football game between my favorite college team, the Oklahoma Sooners, and the Florida Gators. Oklahoma has had a terrific season mostly because of an outstanding offense. Sam Bradford, the Heisman trophy winner, has been spectacular. I remember thinking when Jason White graduated that I would probably never see a better quarterback in an Oklahoma uniform. Boy, was I wrong.

I am worried, however, because Florida is really good. The weaknesses of this Oklahoma team, special teams and the defense, could easily be exploited by this fast and dangerous Florida team. Tim Tebow, in particular, is scary because I've watched him will his team to several wins this season. His competitive drive could easily be the difference in the game tonight.

If the Sooners happen to win tonight, the second best thing about it (behind winning the National Championship, of course) will be that ESPN won't be able to run that "Oklahoma has 4 straight BCS losses" message across the ticker every two minutes any more. It is bad enough for the fans that we've had to watch those losses. Seeing that message throughout bowl season is just rubbing salt in the wound in my opinion.

Tomorrow will be very good or very bad for us here at the Tiki Hut. The Tiki Gal is (possibly) a bigger OU and football fan than me. She not only doesn't complain when we watch football, she enjoys it and knows the difference between a quarterback and a cornerback. (She can also name coaches and players on teams other than Oklahoma - eat your hearts out fellas because I am a lucky man.) Our kids are also huge fans and will be watching tonight as well. If the Sooners don't win, some long faces will be leaving the Tiki Hut in the morning.