Yaka Hula Hickey Dula

It's weird to think about drinking in high school as "something we just did." There's so much talk about getting kids to "just say no" to drugs and alcohol. I'm sure that every generation thinks that they're different, but we drank and didn't do stupid stuff. Sure we were capable of it, but most of us didn't do dumb shit. We drank, got drunk and usually passed out wherever we were. But I enjoyed drinking alcohol in high school and beyond. I've been drinking for a long time and I thought that I had had most of the drinks that had been created. Drinks with Everclear (Woof!). Drinks with Malort. (Ewww!) And everything in between. I wasn't even much of a beer connoisseur. I drank Milwaukee's Best in high school and college. And I pretty much stuck to Calvert and coke if I wanted something a little harder. Today I drink craft beers which totally doesn't seem like me, but I love them! Most of them are pretty hoppy, which is nothing like Milwaukee's Best or any other domestic beer for that matter, but I feel like I'm more of an adult when I drink these beers. I also feel like an adult when I drink cocktails. I'm still not much of a mixologist as I tend to stick to simple drinks these days. Beer. Dirty Martini. Straight bourbon. But I am always game for an interesting drink and I'm willing to try just about anything. (I mean, I tried Malort.)

My friends, who are more mixologists than I am, got me a gift box from Shaker and Spoon for Christmas. I had never heard of this wonderful company who sends custom boxes of ingredients (minus the alcohol) to your home so that you can play mixologist with your partner or friends. It comes with instructions on how to mix your new favorite drinks and you can get a month to month subscription or do a three, six or twelve month prepaid subscription. Obviously, the more months you do, the cheaper each box is. Each gift box contains enough ingredients to make 4 drinks of each of 3 cocktails. This gift box was perfect for me because all of cocktails contained rum. I went through a period in my early 30's where my best friend and I drank a lot of rum. And we weren't very creative. I usually had rum and coke and he usually chugged the bottle...but that's a different story. It had been a long time since I had had any kind of rum drinks so I was looking forward to trying these new concoctions. I hadn't heard of any of the drinks in this gift box . So I had fun experimenting with these new cocktails. The drinks in the gift box were tasty and interesting and I felt like a mad scientist as I made them. Once I had made all of the drinks, I was looking for some other rum drinks that I could make for fun.

That's when I came across the Yaka Hula Hickey Dula. I was like, "Whaaaat?!!!" I had never heard of this drink and I really loved saying it! Yaka Hula Hickey Dula. See it's a lot of fun to say! Apparently, this drink goes way back since Al Jolson sang a song about this drink and the only reason why I haven't linked to the video of this performance is that Al Jolson is in black face. So...there's that. Anyway, the drink has been around for a long time and I'm surprised that I had never heard of it. It consists of dark rum, dry vermouth and pineapple juice. The ingredients may seem like they wouldn't work together, but they do. Trust me. So frost a martini glass and make yourself a Yaka Hula Hickey Dula. And then tell your friends because it's so fun to say!

Yaka Hula Hickey Dula

Ingredients:

1-1/2 oz Dark Rum

1-1/2 oz Dry Vermouth

1-1/2 oz Pineapple juice

Add ice and mix ingredients in a cocktail shaker and pour into a frosted martini glass.

Enjoy!