I have no way to know how close this stuff is to, say, whatever mid-Century product was available. Oke, in general, has a bad reputation in Hawaii, and it’s all but forgotten on the mainland. In any case, Island Distillers claims theirs involves local distilled ti root and is as authentic as they can figure how to make it.
Some articles:
Anyway, this bottling doesn’t taste like much on its own, other than alcohol. However, we’ve been experimenting with the Oke drinks that Beachbum Berry has published, and the results have been most surprising. Basically, once you start mixing with this stuff, a “creamy”, “dulce de leche” character expresses itself that is quite unlike anything I, or my fellow tasters, have had before. So far the winning recipe is the Polynesian Paralysis from the 1950s that Berry published back in Grog Log. It’s a damn good drink, and tastes like nothing else when made with this stuff. We were less successful with the Halekulani Cocktail—it just wasn’t good, and it wasn’t at all clear how to fix it. The one we haven’t gotten to yet—but I’m keen to try soon—is the Bali Hai from the House of Happy Talk Lounge, c. 1961.
I know it’s been a while since you posted this. Not sure if you’re still interested or not. But I got quite interested in this spirit a ways back. I haven’t tried the one from the other commercial producer in HI, nor any of the home distilled kinds. But this one has a very strong banana aroma, as you may have noticed. I think that’s either from the choice of yeast or the way the cuts are being done, leading to a heavy amount of isoamyl acetate. In a cask aged spirit, the oak would take a lot of that out. In any case, from what people more experienced with ti root spirit than I am tell me, that banana aroma is not part of traditional Okolehao. So if one is thinking this is a recreation to use for lost older recipes… I dont think so. It is its own thing.
Interesting! None of the product I’ve gotten has what I’d call a strong banana aroma—or any strong aroma other than ethyl alcohol. (I got mine in 2018 and 2019, but I have no way of knowing when the respective contents were produced; the bottle was revised.) I do know what that isoamyl acetate smell is like. Testing my current sample neat and with water added, there’s an elusive sweet fruitiness in the nose that is detectable, but not strong; yes, it might be isoamyl acetate, but to my nose it’s either not sufficiently concentrated or it is something else or it is a combo.
As for what would be “authentic oke”, the more I read about, the less it seems like there’s anything to it other than any rough spirit (call it moonshine if you like) made in Hawaii. (Much like “Canadian whisky” isn’t much more definitive than any whisky produced in Canada.) Ti root isn’t apparently even a requirement—that just happens to be one of the readily fermentable materials that was available and popular at a time.
It would certainly be interesting to know exactly which products were in use in the 1930s-1960s at joints like the Halekulani. Then one could try to track down vintage specimens. But perhaps too much time has passed with too little surviving documentation and too few remaining specimens?
interesting that yours doesnt have that banana smell. I have 2 bottles from 2019 that do. While I have no prior experience with this spirit, I brought it to Brian Miller, and he said it didn’t taste or smell like the Okolehao he was familiar with from peoples’ backyard stills. I was surprised that it existed, so I asked some native Hawaiian friends about it and they were like “Oh yeah, people make that.” Take that with a grain of salt perhaps. But I think it may be like moonshine anywhere – it never stopped existing. (I have a bottle of whiskey on my bar now from some friends in NJ who have always made their own.It exists everywhere and always will) As for various “off” aromas, one can learn a lot from talking to home brewers
Ok, but Okolehao is of extremely limited mixological interest outside of a handful of exotic drinks, and those drinks—from the 1930s-1960s—were presumably not made with hooch from people’s backyard stills. Or were they? The Halekulani was serving drinks on Waikiki made with stuff they bought in jugs from locals in the hills?
My presumption is the drinks we know formally—which came from hotels and restaurants—were made with specific, commercially-produced “Okolehao”. I mostly see references to products by Hawaiian Distillers or Ti Root Okolehao Hawaii. In what passes for the written record (on-line, at least) I see suggestions that a lot of Oke was actually just rectified/adjusted/blended product based on inexpensive bourbon or brandy, beginning as early as the mid-1940s.
If the historical timeline proposed in the article is at all accurate, Oke was in severe decline to rum in the post-Prohibition when the exotic drink genre began, and after WW2, the product was just whatever Hawaiian Distillers said it was.
I take your point. As a whisky person, I found it interesting so brought samples of it with me the last time I was doing research work in Scotland, and learned a lot about different chemical aromas etc. But that’s a different rabbit hole to go down.
