Bartending On Your Honeymoon

Last week was a stressful one for me, with the vendor issues, so I'm going to try to keep things lighthearted this week!

I told you all a while back about our honeymoon plans here and here. For a week we have a private house rented on the north shore of Kauai, followed by a day in Waikiki.

We're really looking forward to lounging on the beach in front of our house in Hawaii, but renting a house does come with some downsides compared to staying in a hotel. Namely, no waiters to bring you drinks!

So last weekend while Mr. Cola was in Vegas for a friend's bachelor party, I took it upon myself to try some recipes for a classic Hawaiian drink, the Mai Tai. If I'm going to have to make my own drinks on our honeymoon, I wanted to be prepared by knowing what ingredients to buy at the store, and how difficult the drinks would be to make!

First up was a partially pre-made option:

4 oz Trader Vic's Mai Tai mix
2 oz dark rum
Juice from 1 lime (or Rose's lime juice)


Multiply that by 2 to fit in a 20 oz glass better, and this is what I ended up with.

Then it was time for the taste test. Which I documented for you with the built-in webcam on my computer (I was bored without Mr. C around to entertain me, and I'd never played with the webcam before that weekend, so it was a good excuse. And now I know how to use it if I ever need to!).

"Wow, that's limey!"


Conclusion: Eh. It was okay, but not great.

Next, I tried a more complicated, 7 ingredient recipe:

2 oz dark rum
1 oz light rum
1 oz orange liqueur
4 oz orange juice
4 oz pineapple juice
3 oz sweet and sour mix
1 oz grenadine syrup


Now, for the moment of truth:

Conclusion: Yummers! But a lot of work to make.

Do I really want to have to mix 7 ingredients every time I need a drink on the beach on our honeymoon? I'm leaning toward no. But the pre-made mix wasn't very good either.

So I can either make a big batch of the more complicated recipe and just pour it into a smaller glass as needed, or find another option. Beer would be easy, but I can't drink it. I like some other bottled options like Mike's Hard Lemonade, but they make me too full after one or two because they're so carbonated. And I could always just drink my "go to" drink of Captain and Diet Coke, but I think I might feel like drinking a something a little more special on our honeymoon!

Tell me hive, what easy-to-make drinks do you like to drink on a hot, sunny beach? Is anyone else taking a honeymoon where you won't have some of the luxuries of being at a resort?