What is the crowd's opinion of Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki?

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Buy a copy of the Smuggler's Cove book and go from there.

If you really want to get into making tiki drinks, you should buy the Smuggler's Cove book to get a good grip on what you're doing. The book also has recipes for most of the common syrups in the back. It is under $20 on Amazon, so it costs about the same as a decent bottle of rum.

Before you go buying a bunch more rums, you need to get a copy of Martin Cate's Smuggler's Cove book. The chapter on the different types of rums alone is worth the price of the book.

https://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Cove-Exotic-Cocktails-Cult/dp/1607747324

Rum wise, you need something Jamaican. I would recommend Appleton. Smith and Cross can also be fun. Overproof also gets used frequently; Plantation Old Fashioned Traditional Dark (OFTD) is popular.

Personally, I would also consider my copy of Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki to be essential.

My wife bought me a copy of <em>Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki</em> when coronavirus started. We’ve really enjoyed making tiki drinks. If you have visited r/tiki yet I recommend it!

I'll actually say that you might want to spend a little on picking up a good book about tiki, like Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki. It's worth it for the recipes alone, but the chapter on rums is pure gold. You'll learn that "light" and "dark" don't really mean anything.

Other's here have recommended Cocktail Wonk's blog, and that's a good place to learn, as well.

This may seem like out left field, but everyone I see Smuggler's Cove I think of this book. Check it out if you wanna learn how to make good tiki cocktails.

Shudders in a Whisper

GLASSWARE Large (22-ounce) brandy snifter

3/4 ounce fresh lime juice 1/2 ounce SC Passion Fruit Syrup (page 325) 1/2 ounce natural pear liqueur (such as Mathilde Poire) 1/4 ounce Drambuie liqueur 2 ounces seltzer 2 ounces column still aged rum (4) 2 dashes Peychaud's bitters 1 dash Angostura bitters

GARNISH Edible orchid and mint sprig

Add all of the ingredients to a drink mixer tin. Fill with 12 ounces of crushed ice and 4 to 6 small "agitator" cubes. Flash blend and open pour with gated finish into a snifter. Add garnish.

Amazon Link to Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki https://www.amazon.com/dp/1607747324/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_AHRR3B2GYWH1BAZRR654

They sell rusted scrap metal thats been welded into dinosaur sculptures and you do not have enough of them.

Alternatively, buy smugglers cove, get into tiki drinks, and add some tiki style.

Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki https://www.amazon.com/dp/1607747324/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_VZ23920QC2BCN4ND9142

This is the best bar book there is. You said money is no object and that is good because you will need to buy a lot of different rums from astorwines.com or somewhere.

How about Smugglers Cove?

The short answer is that the single thing that catalyzed my journey into Tiki was the book "Smuggler's Cove", by Martin Cate. My wife gave it to me for Christmas the year it was published, and I loved it. I couldn't put it down, and almost immediately began acquiring spirits and making the recipes.

The longer answer is that Tiki checks off a lot of boxes for me, as far as intersecting with my interests and tastes, so the seeds were there. I enjoy cocktails, love making things, cooking, the mid-century aesthetic, vintage stuff, the theater and ritual of cocktail making, etc., etc. Essentially all I needed was something to bring it all together and point me in the right direction, and that's what Smuggler's Cove did.

Rum gets very confusing lol great book that explains it is Smugglers Cove but even then they all could vary soo much

Zaya 12 is great in mudslides btw!

Yeah, not bad.

Simple Syrup - it's not bad, you just paid for something you can make in under 5 minutes. 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, heat until sugar dissolves (but don't boil it, you'll make candy).

Orgeat - sorry just no. "INGREDIENTS: Sugar, Water, Natural Flavors, Citric Acid, Sodium Benzoate (Preservative)". Get a bottle of Small Hand Foods or Liber & Co. next and you'll see an amazing difference.

Bacardi - It's serviceable, but an upgrade will really kick your cocktail game up.

Appleton 12 - very nice.

Meyers - Again, serviceable. Nothing special.

Angostura - excellent. You should also pick up a bottle of Peychaud's Bitters.

Falernum - Fee Bros. is O.K. The gold standard -even if it gets some flack - is John D. Taylor's Velvet Falernum.

Curacao - Again, serviceable, but your next bottle should be Pierre Ferrand Dry Orange Curaçao

Actually, before you buy another bottle of anything, spend some cash on the book Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki (https://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Cove-Exotic-Cocktails-Cult/dp/1607747324). Make this your tiki bible!

For Rum, the book Smuggler's Cove is an incredible resource for amazing Tiki cocktail recipes, history of Tiki bars and the tiki scene, as well as a thorough examination of Rum. Some of my favorite rums are:

• Smith + Cross (high ABV Jamaican style)

• Foursquare (very high ABV, more of a sipping rum)

• Flor de Cana (my favorite mixing rum, the 4 year white and 5 year gold rums)

• Pussers Navy Rum (a fun rum but strong in a dried fruit and raisin flavor to me)

Scotch is not as so dramatically different than Bourbon, so I'd say try an available bottle from each of the styles of Scotch: bourbon cask mature, sherry cask (or port cask or other wine cask), and peated (smokey) scotch. After you kind of figure out what sort of category of malt whisky you like, then you can explore more of the distilleries. What I'd suggest for like, a real easy starter pack to the different styles of malt whisky would be

• Glenmorangie 10 year (a great baseline for ex-bourbon cask matured scotch at a decent price)

• Glendronach 12 or Macallan 12 (sherry barrel matured. I'm a huge Macallan fan, but they're a bit pricy)

• Monkey Shoulder (Blended malt whisky from several distilleries, a great cheap bottle and a decent intro to blended whisky)

• Talisker 10 or Highland Park 12 (island whisky, so a slight hint of peat smokiness but not as profound a flavor as the islay bottles)

• Ardbeg 10, or Laphroaig 10, or Lagavulin 8 or 16 (a heavily peated malt to really explore the smoky side of scotch)

I would recommend that you get a copy of the Smugglers Cove book before buying any more rum. The chapter on types of rum, and recommendations is worth the price of the book alone. It teaches you that rum terms like "white" or "dark" are not helpful.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smuglers-Cove-Martin-Cate/dp/1607747324

As others have said, "light" and "dark" are the common ways to describe rum, but they're also pretty bad ways. Sort of like I could say "brown soda" and it could be cola or root beer or Mountain Dew Black.

As /u/TikiRyne and /u/DirectC51 said, get a copy of the Smugglers Cove book (link here). You will learn so much about rums, plus it's chock full of great recipes and some tiki history thrown in. Then my advice is always to pick 2 or 3 recipes that you want to learn to make and buy just what you need for those. You can spend hundreds of dollars buying rum and liquors, and many new people go overboard buying bottles that then gather dust. I, personally, was guilty of that.

But if you want to throw caution to the winds and just jump right in, a rum like Plantation 5 Year will work well in many recipes and is not that expensive. It's a good first bottle.

Smugglers Cove put out a book recently that's pretty spectacular, doubly so if your primary concern is mixing rum.

Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki https://www.amazon.com/dp/1607747324/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_PwWTxbQKZC4KH

It's easy to get overwhelmed, but everyone is starting somewhere.

As /u/el_joker1 said, Please buy the book!

https://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Cove-Exotic-Cocktails-Cult/dp/1607747324/

This is our bible: https://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Cove-Exotic-Cocktails-Cult/dp/1607747324

Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki is pretty much our bible. https://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Cove-Exotic-Cocktails-Cult/dp/1607747324

Also get the Total Tiki app, which will give you tons of recipes and show you what you can make with what you have on hand. https://beachbumberry.com/publications.html

With those two you'll pretty much have everything you need.

Here's a post I've made before about getting into Tiki. The rums I mention use the categorization in the Smuggler's Cove book. It's pretty hard to pin down different styles of rum, and there other good ways of doing it (such as this one). But the Smuggler's Cove categories are pretty common.

If you're handy with Excel/spreadsheets, check out this post. It has a breakdown of Smuggler's Cove recipes by ingredient type that lets you easily see what you can make based on what you've got.

Having said that, here's how I'd break things down for starting your tiki liquor collection (using the Smuggler's Cove rum categorization):

Minimal rums:

• Blended Lightly Aged (such as Appleton Estate Signature, Mount Gay Eclipse, Plantation 3 star) - these are your workhorse rums that you'd use for just about any basic rum drink, though you generally wouldn't sip on their own. They're readily available and affordable.
• Blended Aged (5-12 year aged rums such as Appleton 8/12, Dos Maderas 5+3/5+5, El Dorado 5/8/12, Pusser's, etc.) - more flavorful rums, with a wide variety. They've been aged, so they're a little more expensive. There's a lot of variety/options in this category.
• Black Blended (Gosling's Black Seal, Myers's Dark, Coruba) - all cheaper, readily available rums that are generally sweeter/funkier due to the addition of molasses after fermentation.

With just those three rums, you can make several classic Tiki drinks like the Mai Tai, Daiquiri, Painkiller, Planter's Punch, Hurricane, Queen's Park Swizzle, Scorpion (need Gin & Cognac), Jungle Bird (need Campari), and Volcano (need Luxardo Maraschino) as well as several lesser known drinks. These are all popular and make a great introduction to Tiki.

Mid-set rums:

• Black Blended Overproof (such as Lemon Hart 151 or Plantation O.F.T.D.) - these can be hard to find depending on your location. They're obviously strong as hell, and a little goes a long way.
• Pot Still Lightly Aged (such as Smith & Cross) - there are plenty of rums that fit this category, but Smith & Cross is amazing, not terribly expensive, and pretty readily available. Pot still rums generally bring the funk to your drinks.
• Column Still Aged (Bacardi 8, Flor de Cana 12, Ron Zacapa 23) - honestly I think if you see this in a recipe, you can get generally get away with subbing one of your Blended Aged rums without a huge difference in flavor.

You can now do classics such as the Zombie, Navy Grog, Jet Pilot, Boo Loo, Puka Punch, Pupule, Tiki Bowl, and others.

All other rums:

• Pot Still Unaged (Wray & Nephew Overproof or Rum Fire Overproof) - not really used much in Smuggler's Cove at all, but you'll find them used more by other Tiki recipe sources.
• Unaged Rum Agricole (Clement, Neisson, Rhum J.M.) - Grassy in flavor, tastes really different from other rums. Agricole rums tend to be more expensive and harder to find.
• Aged Rum Agricole (Clement, Neisson, Rhum J.M.) - You'd be excused if you thought this was some sort of whiskey the first time you did a blind tasting.

Three Dots and a Dash uses the aged agricole, and then you can add some lesser-known drinks.

Minimal liqueurs:

• Orange Curacao - Obviously used in a wide variety of non-tiki cocktails as well.

Mid-set liqueurs:

• Falernum - Sweet, can be a bit hard to find at times. Usually use a half ounce in a variety of tiki drinks.
• Allspice Dram - Can be a little expensive, but one bottle of this will last forever. It's basically like bitters- you pretty much always use at most 1/4 ounce in a drink.

Other liqueurs:

• Absinthe/Herbsaint - several drinks in the book use this as part of the author's "Herbstura", which is basically an even mix of Angostura Bitters and Herbsaint. You can certainly get away with omitting it from any of the recipes, but it does add a nice touch of anise to the drinks.
• Etc. - A lot of other liqueurs are used in just a handful of recipes, so it's just a matter of what you have or want to try. Apricot Liqueur, Peach Liqueur, Luxardo Maraschino, Green Chartreuse, and Cherry Heering are some of the ones I've used.

Syrups:

• Orgeat - A sweet almond syrup. If you're getting into tiki, you need this for Mai Tais if nothing else. And you'll want to get into Mai Tais.
• Passion Fruit Syrup - Also found in a lot of tiki drinks, readily available on Amazon.

You're actually on the right track. Too many people jump into tiki and buy hundreds of dollars worth of ingredients that end up gathering dust. Go slow, and add as you need, and as you find a new drink you want to try making.

I'll echo that a good book like "Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki", $16 on Amazon, will give you recipes, rum tips, and some cool fun history. But if you can get to a tiki bar to taste a few basic drinks (I agree with Mai Tai, Painkiller, Daiquiri), that will help you know what it's supposed to taste like. Let us know where you are and we can recommend the best nearby tiki bar.

When syrups go bad, they usually grow mold. It won't make you sick, but it'll taste yucky. You'll be able to tell because the syrup will get cloudy or have things floating in it or smell like vinegar. If you keep your syrups in the fridge, you can definitely keep them more than 2-3 months. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I have a bottle of Liber & Co. orgeat that I opened Sept. 26th. Still good because I take it out, use it, and immediately put it back in. (Pro tip: write the date you open it on the bottle.) If you're making your own, sanitizing the container will make the biggest difference. (Boil for 5 minutes.) Your Monin syrup is likely still good, but it may be getting "tired" and losing flavor. I too recommend Liber & Co. for syrups. (https://www.liberandcompany.com/) Join their "Cocktail Club" and sign up for their newsletter and you'll get coupons and discounts. You can also find a lot of syrups on Amazon, but I find they tend to be cheaper direct from the companies.

Welcome to the fun! Enjoy!

Our "bible", Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki

https://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Cove-Exotic-Cocktails-Cult/dp/1607747324

Over the past two years I have really been getting into rum and tiki drinks. This book changed my life https://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Cove-Exotic-Cocktails-Cult/dp/1607747324

My favorite is also one of the most simple, the daiquiri

juice of one lime, 0.5 oz demerara syrup (a 2:1 mixture of demerara or brown sugar and water), 2 oz light rum (My go to is plantation three stars, cheap and delicious. Can also go with plantation's stiggings pineapple rum for a more complex flavor).

if youre really interested in upping the rum game check out this book https://www.amazon.ca/Smugglers-Cove-Exotic-Cocktails-Cult/dp/1607747324

and join us in /r/tiki

Absolutely! Tiki has a long and fairly interesting history that encompasses everything from architecture to fashion to music genres, in addition to the drinks and bars, so its worth a deeper dive if you're curious.

The Wikipedia entry is a pretty good general place to start as it touches on a lot of the different components of tiki culture and its history/decline/resurgence in general. If you want something a bit more in depth on both rum and tiki, the Smugglers Cove book by Martin and Rebecca Cate is kind of the current gold-standard for tiki bibles. It offers a great mix of history, an explainer of rums, and a something like 120 cocktail recipes. You can get it from the usual places, but if you're into a signed edition and want to make sure the money gets back to the authors its available directly from Smuggler's Cove's website for cover price.

For easy classic mugs that won't break the bank, Trader Vic's: https://shop.tradervics.com/collections/ceramics

For some interesting antique glassware, Collins & Coupe: https://www.collinsandcoupe.com/shop/drinkware/6

(Actually, Collins & Coupe has a ton of fun and interesting stuff.)

Our tiki "bible" is Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki: https://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Cove-Exotic-Cocktails-Cult/dp/1607747324

For great cocktail syrups, Liber & Co. (15% off thru the 12th): https://www.liberandcompany.com/collections/syrups

For high-end cocktail tools, Cocktail Kingdom: https://www.cocktailkingdom.com

smugglers cove book is a great start for learning the rums and syrups

For tiki mugs

For pop culture mugs Check out Mondo

Or

geeki tikis

For mor normal ones cant go wrong with

Tiki Farm

For cheaper ones if your going to stock a bar check out

Kegworks

Or for wholesale by the case tiki glasses instead of mugs webstaurantstore

The list of good rums is endless person prior listed a great few :D Depends what drinks he is planning on making. If he is into Mai tais i recomend Denizen merchant reserve with a bottle of liber co orgeat syrup and i know everyone on /r/tiki loves pf dry curacao but personally im happy with the sweeter marie brizzard

Feel free to ask more questions id love to help :D

Here's a post I've made before about getting into Tiki. The rums I mention use the categorization in the Smuggler's Cove book. It's pretty hard to pin down different styles of rum, and there other good ways of doing it (such as this one). But the Smuggler's Cove categories are pretty common.

If you're handy with Excel/spreadsheets, check out this post. It has a breakdown of Smuggler's Cove recipes by ingredient type that lets you easily see what you can make based on what you've got.

Having said that, here's how I'd break things down for starting your tiki liquor collection (using the Smuggler's Cove rum categorization):

Minimal rums:

• Blended Lightly Aged (such as Appleton Estate Signature, Mount Gay Eclipse, Plantation 3 star) - these are your workhorse rums that you'd use for just about any basic rum drink, though you generally wouldn't sip on their own. They're readily available and affordable.
• Blended Aged (5-12 year aged rums such as Appleton 8/12, Dos Maderas 5+3/5+5, El Dorado 5/8/12, Pusser's, etc.) - more flavorful rums, with a wide variety. They've been aged, so they're a little more expensive. There's a lot of variety/options in this category.
• Black Blended (Gosling's Black Seal, Myers's Dark, Coruba) - all cheaper, readily available rums that are generally sweeter/funkier due to the addition of molasses after fermentation.

With just those three rums, you can make several classic Tiki drinks like the Mai Tai, Daiquiri, Painkiller, Planter's Punch, Hurricane, Queen's Park Swizzle, Scorpion (need Gin & Cognac), Jungle Bird (need Campari), and Volcano (need Luxardo Maraschino) as well as several lesser known drinks. These are all popular and make a great introduction to Tiki.

Mid-set rums:

• Black Blended Overproof (such as Lemon Hart 151 or Plantation O.F.T.D.) - these can be hard to find depending on your location. They're obviously strong as hell, and a little goes a long way.
• Pot Still Lightly Aged (such as Smith & Cross) - there are plenty of rums that fit this category, but Smith & Cross is amazing, not terribly expensive, and pretty readily available. Pot still rums generally bring the funk to your drinks.
• Column Still Aged (Bacardi 8, Flor de Cana 12, Ron Zacapa 23) - honestly I think if you see this in a recipe, you can get generally get away with subbing one of your Blended Aged rums without a huge difference in flavor.

You can now do classics such as the Zombie, Navy Grog, Jet Pilot, Boo Loo, Puka Punch, Pupule, Tiki Bowl, and others.

All other rums:

• Pot Still Unaged (Wray & Nephew Overproof or Rum Fire Overproof) - not really used much in Smuggler's Cove at all, but you'll find them used more by other Tiki recipe sources.
• Unaged Rum Agricole (Clement, Neisson, Rhum J.M.) - Grassy in flavor, tastes really different from other rums. Agricole rums tend to be more expensive and harder to find.
• Aged Rum Agricole (Clement, Neisson, Rhum J.M.) - You'd be excused if you thought this was some sort of whiskey the first time you did a blind tasting.

Three Dots and a Dash uses the aged agricole, and then you can add some lesser-known drinks.

Minimal liqueurs:

• Orange Curacao - Obviously used in a wide variety of non-tiki cocktails as well.

Mid-set liqueurs:

• Falernum - Sweet, can be a bit hard to find at times. Usually use a half ounce in a variety of tiki drinks.
• Allspice Dram - Can be a little expensive, but one bottle of this will last forever. It's basically like bitters- you pretty much always use at most 1/4 ounce in a drink.

Other liqueurs:

• Absinthe/Herbsaint - several drinks in the book use this as part of the author's "Herbstura", which is basically an even mix of Angostura Bitters and Herbsaint. You can certainly get away with omitting it from any of the recipes, but it does add a nice touch of anise to the drinks.
• Etc. - A lot of other liqueurs are used in just a handful of recipes, so it's just a matter of what you have or want to try. Apricot Liqueur, Peach Liqueur, Luxardo Maraschino, Green Chartreuse, and Cherry Heering are some of the ones I've used.

Syrups:

• Orgeat - A sweet almond syrup. If you're getting into tiki, you need this for Mai Tais if nothing else. And you'll want to get into Mai Tais.
• Passion Fruit Syrup - Also found in a lot of tiki drinks, readily

Smugglers Cove has a nice Rum section in the book and categories them together.

https://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Cove-Exotic-Cocktails-Cult/dp/1607747324/

For sipping I like El Dorado 15 and Rhum JM VSOP

The Smuggler's Cove book is our bible. Not just recipes, but history, rum classification, and other fun stuff.

https://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Cove-Exotic-Cocktails-Cult/dp/1607747324

"Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki" is the best $17 you will spend if you're serious about learning more about tiki and rums: https://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Cove-Exotic-Cocktails-Cult/dp/1607747324

I don’t know what your level of interest in tiki is, so forgive me if you are “hip” already:

Please research tiki culture. There’s plenty of party store type tiki swag out there already that kinda misses the mark on most tikiphiles. Start with Sven Kirsten’s book Tiki Pop then get the awesome book by Martin and Rebecca Cate Smugglers Cove (named after their bar, of course). The world has too much “hang loose” grinning teeth tiki stuff.

>Depuis le début du confinement j'apprends à faire des cocktails, mais j'ai trouvé que je m'intéresse étonnamment aux cocktails // à la culture // au Tiki. Le Tiki est un genre de cocktails (ainsi qu'un thème décoratif) qui a été créé sur la côte ouest des États-Unis juste après la Deuxième Guerre mondiale. (Il a ses racines dans certains restaurants ouverts/créés avant la guerre, mais c'était principalement dans les années cinquante où on trouvait la culture Tiki.) Il a été inspiré par la culture polynésienne et créé pour permettre aux clients d'un restaurant ou d'un bar Tiki de se sentir sur une plage de sable blanc, même pendant juste une heure ou deux. En général, les cocktails ~~de~~ Tiki contiennent du rhum, du sucre, et des jus de fruits, mais cette description ne suffit pas du tout à décrire la vraie variété et complexité de ces cocktails.
>
>À Noël, ma femme m'a offert un super livre sur ce sujet, et récemment j'ai commencé à faire beaucoup de cocktails ~~de~~ Tiki. Ils sont délicieux et dangereux, mais si vous vous intéressez aux cocktails, je vous prie de les essayer.

This should be your bible: https://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Cove-Exotic-Cocktails-Cult/dp/1607747324

It's pretty weird that they sell a hardcover version of this &quot;menu&quot; on Amazon.

Go here, click on the picture of the book on the left, where it says "Look inside", scroll down and you'll get to the book's Index.

https://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Cove-Exotic-Cocktails-Cult/dp/1607747324

Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki, by Martin & Rebecca Cate. It's our bible. https://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Cove-Exotic-Cocktails-Cult/dp/1607747324

Our bible: https://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Cove-Exotic-Cocktails-Cult/dp/1607747324

You really need to buy the book. If you're learning, it should be your textbook. https://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Cove-Exotic-Cocktails-Cult/dp/1607747324

If you want to get serious about tiki, you want this book: Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki. It's pretty much the tiki bible. It has tiki history, all about rum, rum recommendations, tiki party help, and lots of great recipes.

For your cocktail syrups, you can buy orgeat on Amazon from Liber & Co, B.G. Reynolds, Liquid Alchemist, and Small Hand Food: https://www.amazon.com/orgeat-syrup/s?k=orgeat+syrup

Welcome to the journey!

First, Monin isn't awful, but it's pretty bad. Many here will say to make your own syrups, which is actually pretty easy and fun if you're good in the kitchen. But for someone just starting out, I always recommend to start with bottled syrups, so you know what it should taste like. I like Small Hand Foods quite a bit. Many here also like Liber &amp; Co.. BG Reynolds has a large selection, athough I don't recommend their orgeat. You can also find many of these on Amazon, if that's more convenient for you. Simple syrup you can make yourself - it's a waste of money to buy. It's just equal part sugar and water, heated gently until the sugar dissolves. Should take you 10 minutes max to make, and then store in the fridge.

As far as upgrading syrups or base liquors, you want decent syrups, but you don't have to go crazy. Simple syrup, orgeat, and passion fruit syrup should do you for a while. Make some simple syrup and throw in some cinnamon sticks and you have cinnamon syrup. For tiki drinks you'll mostly be using rum. I strongly recommend you spend a few dollars and get the Smugglers Cove book, the sections on recommended rums is excellent, and it's full of great recipes too.

If you have any other questions, just ask!

Is tiki considered "advanced"? If not, I'd add Smuggler's Cove by Martin Cate.

Maybe a tiki book like this: Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki? I've heard good things about it, haven't bought it for myself yet though.