Rum

Hawaii Kai Treasure

Name: Hawaii Kai Treasure
Yield: 1 servings

Glass: Tiki Mug

A creamy grapefruit-and-orgeat tiki blend from the Hawaii Kai's NYC heyday.

rum tiki tropical mid-century polynesian-pop orgeat grapefruit blended

Ingredients

fresh lime juice (0.75 oz)
fresh grapefruit juice (1 oz)
honey syrup (0.5 oz)
orgeat syrup (0.5 oz)
half-and-half (0.5 oz)
orange curaçao (0.5 oz)
Puerto Rican rum (1.5 oz)
crushed ice (0.5 cup)
gardenia (1)
pearl (1)

Berry Remixed, Kindred Cocktails, Atomic Grog, and the NYC Restaurant Archive consistently credit head bartender Mannie "Blackie" Andal with the Hawaii Kai Treasure; Joe Scialom is sometimes associated with the room as beverage director, but his documented post-Egypt career was at Caribe Hilton and other Hilton properties rather than Hawaii Kai.¹^,² Garnish traditionally included a "pearl" (a pearl onion or sugar pearl) alongside the gardenia.³ The lime is dialed back to 0.75 oz here, the Hawaiian Kai 1970 Cookbook source called for 2 oz, which yields an undrinkable acid bomb and is likely a transcription anomaly.³

Brand recommendations. Best: Don Q Añejo or Bacardi Reserva Ocho for the Puerto Rican rum; Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao for the orange curaçao; B.G. Reynolds or Small Hand Foods orgeat; raw orange-blossom honey for the honey syrup; fresh half-and-half. Economical: Bacardi Gold or Don Q Gold for the Puerto Rican rum; Senior Curaçao of Curaçao or Bols Orange Curaçao; Liber & Co. orgeat or Fee Brothers; supermarket clover honey; supermarket half-and-half.

Instructions

In a blender combine fresh lime juice, fresh grapefruit juice, honey syrup (1:1), orgeat syrup, half-and-half, orange curaçao, and Puerto Rican rum.
Add crushed ice and blend on high for about 10 seconds.
Pour unstrained into a tiki mug or large goblet.
Garnish with a gardenia and a pearl.

Sources

Berry, Beachbum Berry Remixed (2010), Hawaii Kai entries, discusses the New York Hawaii Kai room (Broadway and 50th, c. 1962), Joe Scialom's beverage-director role after his Cairo / Shepheard's years, and Mannie Andal's parallel head-bartender credit. ↩
Mustipher, Tiki: Modern Tropical Cocktails (2019), Joe Scialom / Hawaii Kai entries, documents Scialom's transitional role from Cairo refugee bartender to American tiki-room beverage director. ↩
Kindred Cocktails, "Hawaii Kai Treasure." https://kindredcocktails.com/cocktail/hawaii-kai-treasure (accessed 2026-05-03), frontmatter source URL; reproduces the Hawaiian Kai 1970 Cookbook spec (with the 2 oz lime that is treated here as a transcription anomaly) and the gardenia-and-pearl garnish. ↩