`OkoleLau (that's the last okina you'll see in this post)

Okie dokie, everyone!  As some of you may know, I'm not a big tropical cocktail drinker.  I like to keep my booze and fruit separated, but every once in a while, it can be pretty fun.  And this one was super fun!  My dad still insists it was the best cocktail he's ever had, and his fiance drank her portion pretty quickly too.

This cocktail is made of Okolehao, and let me give you a brief history lesson on this magical brew before I tell you the recipe.  Okolehao, in the past, was a moonshine concoction made in Hawaii after the English seamen (heh, heh) came to the Islands in the 1780s.  At this time, they introduced try pots, which were made to remove and render oil from whale blubber.  They and the locals began using these pots to boil the roots of ti plants, creating a liquor.  The try pots looked like butts, so the Hawaiians poked fun of them by naming this cup of ti "okolehao," which is Hawaiian for "iron butt."  It tasted like crap, so rice and sugar and pineapple and a bunch of other stuff were added during the plantation days.  For a long time, lots of families and communities would make their own versions of okolehao moonshine with other ingredients added for flavor.  During World War II, bottles of it were sold to soldiers to use for drinking and fuel.  Seriously.  After rum and vodka and better-tasting liquors were mass introduced to Hawaii shortly after WWII, okolehao went kaput.  Until now!  Haleakala Distilleries now makes Okolehao, a liqueur made from fermented ti root and a bunch of other neat stuff.  It's delicious, and has a pretty sublime tropical-vanilla aroma.  Try it!  And if you do, I recommend trying it in this recipe.  I think this would make a pretty bomb loaded-fruit-punch type of thing to bring to your next luau.

I didn't measure everything, but here's the basic gist per tall, skinny glass:

A shot's worth of Okolehao liqueur
A shot's worth of a ginger liqueur
A dash of Kukui Mai Tai mix (from Koloa Rum Co... super tasty) or if you don't have that, maybe guava or lilikoi juice or something similar in sweetness
About two fingers of pineapple juice
Fill up the rest with club soda
Muddle in a slice of blood orange

Holy mole.

OkoleLau in my 2nd favorite glass.  Spock is obviously my #1 favorite.