Coffee Grog
Tiki in a coffee mug
Don the Beachcomber's mid-century tiki warmer: two rums, butter, honey, and warm spices melted into hot coffee. The allspice-and-cinnamon batter gives the drink its characteristic silk — pure mid-century Polynesian-American confection, served at tiki bars from the 1940s onward. Rediscovered and republished by tiki historian Jeff Berry.
Ingredients
- 1 oz Aged Rum
- 1/2 oz Demerara Rum
- 1 tsp Butter
- 1/2 oz Honey Syrup
- 1/4 oz Vanilla Syrup
- 1/4 oz Allspice Dram
- 1 Cinnamon Stick
- 5 oz Hot Coffee
Method
In a warm mug, combine butter, honey syrup, vanilla syrup, and allspice dram. Drop in a cinnamon stick. Add aged rum and demerara rum. Fill with hot coffee. Stir until the butter fully dissolves. Express an orange twist over the drink and drop it in.
Created by Donn Beach (Don the Beachcomber) in Hollywood, circa 1937—one of his earliest hot-drink creations, preserved via bartender Dick Santiago's notebook and first published in Jeff Beachbum Berry's *Sippin' Safari* (2007). Per Pod Tiki; Beachbum Berry's research. (Note: creation date estimates range 1937–1950s; 1937 is cited by primary tiki sources.)