Tiki Mugs

Most venues buy two or three tiki mugs to try, the drink works, and six months later they need more. By then the design may be gone, because on runs this small it happens. You end up with four different mugs for the same cocktail on the list, and either you change the serve or different tables get the drink in different vessels.

Restocking here depends on small production runs. If a mug is the signature of a drink on your list, buy more than you need today.

With other glassware, a breakage means reordering the same line at a small cost. A broken tiki mug is not replaced so easily, and sometimes not at all, because the design has ended. Venues that keep a tiki serve on the list usually buy one spare and keep it in the stockroom.

Ceramic insulates, so crushed ice holds inside and the hand does not warm the drink through the wall. It is the opposite of the copper Moscow Mule mug, which conducts and frosts over. Ceramic is also opaque: it hides the colour and the level, and in a serve where half the effect is the surprise, that counts.

The trade-off is that painted pieces are hand wash only. An industrial dishwasher dulls the glaze and fades the colours for good, and on a mug at this price that is a straight loss.

It depends on one thing: whether the drink you serve in it justifies a higher menu price. A Mai Tai in a carved mug sells for more than one in a tumbler, and the difference covers the cost of the vessel within a few dozen serves. If the mug sits on a shelf for show, it is decoration.

The question to ask before buying is how often that drink goes out in a week. Under ten serves, one mug and one drink that earns it.

Here more than anywhere, ask first. Runs are small and restocking is not immediate. If you need a quantity for an event, message us on WhatsApp: we tell you what is on the shelf and when the rest arrives.

For the cold of metal there are the copper mule mugs. Crushed ice is worked with the muddler and the ice accessories, and tropical drinks are built in the shaker.