Around here we take Aloha Friday pretty seriously, and during the summertime it is almost mandatory. During a period like the current one, when work and home are one and the same, it is especially important to draw the line for the end of the week. 

Some weeks it is as simple as drinking a Mai Tai. Other times we go the distance and make Huli Huli Chicken and Macaroni Salad. Five o’clock comes and our favorite Pandora station, based on “Island Music” by Bruddah Kuz, fills the backyard with easy, breezy music.

I am fortunate to have a resident mixologist who has committed himself to exploring the many Mai Tai versions, especially those featured in The New-Wave Mai Tai by Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi. We haven’t tried them all because sometimes the ingredients are exotic and can only be found in Hawaii. I’ve also discovered that I am allergic to almond and have to modify my Mai Tai to remove the orgeat syrup.

In California at least, it is fairly easy to stock your bar with your Hawaiian favorites. Most stores carry Koloa Rum or Pau Vodka. More and more stores are carrying POG or lilikoi (aka yellow passion fruit) juice. Places like Trader Joe’s often carry small cans of mango or pineapple juice.

Clay has made a list of what he considers the happy hour essentials:

Clay’s preferred Mai Tai recipe comes from drinksmixer.com, which also offers many other Mai Tai variations. For me, in place of the Orgeat he adds simple syrup, Triple Sec, or double the Orange Curaçao, depending on what we have on hand.

We realize that not everyone wants to stock all the ingredients, which is why we used SoHa Living’s Mai Tai and Hawaiian Hurricane mixes in our latest kits. When we use them, we often add some POG for a bit more of the tropical flavors. Another ready-made Mai Tai mix that we love is Kukui, which has been hand-crafted on Kauai since 1931.

The other key ingredient to a good happy hour is your Ohana. With take out from Hawaiian barbecue places, having a crowd over can be easy. All you need is a couple orders of Chicken Katsu and Spam Musubi to accompany your drinks.

For many, the favorite part of the Hawaiian vacation is all the wonderful drinks with exotic fruit juices (passionfruit, guava, mango, papaya). Some last tips for Hawaiian Happy Hours:

1. Rums can be a matter of personal taste. Caribbean dark rums in particular can vary considerably. Clay’s go-tos are Gosling’s Black Seal (for mixing) and Myers’s Original Dark (for floating).

2. Blue Curaçao can provide beautiful coloring for some drinks, but be careful if mixing with substantial amounts of yellow/orange-colored juices!

3. Mango chunks or purée may work better than juice in some recipes.

Cheers! Tell us what your favorite island-inspired cocktails are.