E Komo Mai

Welcome to Inu a Kena — Hawaiian for “drink until satisfied”. I’m a relative noob in the world of fine spirits and craft cocktails, but as you’ll soon realize, I tend to jump into things with both feet.

Last summer, my wife and I bought an older house that has a built-in bar. Being a guy, I felt the need to stock it. Being me (remember I tend towards overdoing things) I now have an overstock area in the laundry room.

One of the main reasons for the quick stockpiling of booze is my newfound love of tiki drinks. I visited Brice and Lisa Ginardi’s Okole Maluna Tiki Lounge in Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii this past summer, and we got to chatting. I was drawn to their place because I had just christened my home bar with the same moniker! As it turned out, Brice and Lisa used to live not far from our new place–an island city near San Francisco with a pretty great tiki bar called Forbidden Island. He told me about Tiki Central, and a guy who wrote amazing books about the history and craft of authentic tiki drinks called Beachbum Berry.

Fast forward five months, and I’m an amateur bartender.

The craft cocktail/tiki drink communities are thankfully populated by some truly creative and friendly folks, and knowledge abounds in readily digestible formats.  The willingness to share is refreshing to say the least. Through these great and knowledgeable folks, I am learning so much so fast that I feel compelled to share what I’m learning–not only so others might benefit from my follies, but so I can keep track of it myself.

So with that, I give you Inu A Kena. Through these pages, I hope we can learn something together and have a lot of fun in the process.

Aloha,

Josh