The tiki mug is the carved ceramic mug — a Polynesian face, a skull, a moai, a pineapple — that holds a tiki drink over crushed ice. It began in the tiki restaurants of the 1930s and 1940s as a souvenir and became the family's signature vessel; the Zombie, the Painkiller, the Navy Grog and the modern tiki drinks are served in one, and the mug is half the ritual.

What is a tiki mug?

A tiki mug is a glazed ceramic vessel, twelve to twenty ounces, moulded in a figurative shape — the original Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic's mugs were carved tiki faces and skulls, made for the restaurants as souvenirs that customers took home and that advertised the bar. Ceramic holds cold well and its opacity hides the colour of a drink that is often brown, which suited the theatre of the tiki bar: the drink arrived in a mystery vessel under a bouquet of mint, a pineapple frond and a paper umbrella. Mugs became collectible in the 1990s revival — vintage ones sell for hundreds of dollars — and modern bars commission their own. A Pearl Diver glass, a Zombie glass and a scorpion bowl are the same idea in other shapes. The mug does nothing to the drink; it does everything to the experience.

When to use it

Use it for tiki drinks served over crushed ice: the Zombie, the Navy Grog, the Painkiller, the Jet Pilot, the Three Dots and a Dash, and any rum drink with more than two syrups and a garnish bouquet. Fill the mug with crushed ice, shake or flash-blend the drink briefly with a little crushed ice and pour it in, ice and all, then top with more crushed ice to a mound. Garnish for the eye and the nose: a slapped mint bouquet beside the straw, a pineapple frond, a cherry, an orchid, a spent lime shell holding a sugar cube soaked in overproof rum and lit (carefully, briefly, and never near the drinker's face). Serve with a long straw. The mug is not for drinks served up, stirred drinks or anything short; and a tiki drink in a mug is drunk through the straw, since the rim is often carved.

What to use instead

A double rocks glass or a hurricane glass serves any tiki drink; the Mai Tai is traditionally served in a double rocks glass anyway. A pint glass works for a Zombie. A large wine glass or goblet shows the colour the mug hides. A coconut shell or a hollowed pineapple is the beach-bar version and works for the creamy drinks. If you collect mugs, buy them from the bars that commission them; the resale market is full of reproductions, and a mug bought at the bar that made the drink carries the memory with it.

Drinks served in it

The Painkiller, the Zombie, the Ancient Mariner, the Lost Lake, the Mr Bali Hai and the Nui Nui; the Mai Tai, the Jungle Bird and the Jet Pilot are its usual companions in a rocks glass. Every drink served in a tiki mug is listed below.

Questions

Where do tiki mugs come from? Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic's restaurants of the 1930s and 1940s, as souvenirs.

Does the mug matter? To the drink, no; to the experience, entirely.

What size? Twelve to twenty ounces, filled with crushed ice.

Is a flaming garnish safe? A sugar cube in a lime shell, lit briefly and away from the face, is the traditional one; keep the flame small and the overproof rum away from it.