![Cocktail umbrella side](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Cocktail_umbrella_side.jpg)
A cocktail umbrella or paper
parasol
An umbrella or parasol is a folding canopy (building), canopy supported by wooden or metal ribs that is usually mounted on a wooden, metal, or plastic pole. It is designed to protect a person against rain or sunburn, sunlight. The term ''umbr ...
is a small
umbrella
An umbrella or parasol is a folding canopy supported by wooden or metal ribs that is usually mounted on a wooden, metal, or plastic pole. It is designed to protect a person against rain or sunlight. The term ''umbrella'' is traditionally use ...
made from paper,
paperboard, and a
toothpick. They are frequently associated with tropical drinks and
Tiki bars and used as a
garnish decoration. They are also used in
desserts or other foods and beverages.
Description
The umbrella is fashioned out of paper, which can be patterned, with cardboard ribs. The ribs are made from cardboard in order to provide flexibility and to hinge so the umbrella can be pulled shut much like an ordinary umbrella. A small plastic retaining ring is often fashioned against the stem, a toothpick, in order to prevent the umbrella from folding up spontaneously. A sleeve of folded newspaper is located under the collar or base of the cocktail umbrella and is made out of recycled paper from either
China,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
or
Japan. As a result, they indicate their country of origin.
Most drinks with cocktail umbrellas are tropical drinks. However, they are not all tiki drinks, as some would call them. To be considered a tiki drink, the cocktail must contain
rum
Rum is a liquor made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. The distillate, a clear liquid, is usually aged in oak barrels. Rum is produced in nearly every sugar-producing region of the world, such as the Ph ...
and exotic fruit juices. Following this definition, drinks such as pina colodas would be considered tiki drinks, but ones like the Hawaiian margarita would only be considered tropical. This is due to the fact that the Hawaiian margarita contains tequila instead of rum.
Origin and history
It is not quite certain exactly when the cocktail umbrella came into use. One possible source is
Donn Beach, owner of the
Hollywood, California
Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, ...
-based restaurant and bar chain Don the Beachcomber. According to cocktail historian
Dale DeGroff
Dale DeGroff (born September 21, 1948, Rhode Island), also known as ''the King of Cocktails'' or ''King Cocktail'', is an American bartender and author. The New York Times in 2015 called DeGroff "one of the world's foremost cocktail experts", and ...
, Beach started the trend in 1932 after spending much of his time collecting things from the world, most notably from the South Pacific. Beach sold his merchandise, including the cocktail umbrellas, to Victor Bergeron, owner of the
Emeryville, California
Emeryville is a city located in northwest Alameda County, California, in the United States. It lies in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, with a border on the shore of San Francisco Bay. The resident population was 12,905 ...
-based bar chain
Trader Vic's
Trader Vic's is a restaurant and tiki bar chain headquartered in Emeryville, California, United States. Victor Jules Bergeron, Jr. (December 10, 1902 in San Francisco – October 11, 1984 in Hillsborough, California) founded a chain of Polyn ...
. According to Bergeron's son Joe, Trader Vic's used the paper parasols until their production was halted by
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
According to Hawaiian-themed author Rick Carroll, Hawaiian bartender
Harry K. Yee of the Hilton Waikiki was the first to use a paper parasol in a beverage in 1959 during the
Tiki culture
Tiki culture is an American-originated art, music, and entertainment movement inspired by Polynesian, Melanesian and Micronesian cultures. Inspired by Oceanian art, influential cultures to Tiki culture include Australasia, Melanesia, Micrones ...
craze of the 1950s. Yee stated that he initially would use a sugar cane stick as a garnish for his tropical cocktails, but upon seeing how guests would set the sticks in ashtrays and dirty them, switched to
Vanda orchids in 1955.
In 1959, Yee switched to the cocktail umbrella for reasons unknown. Some speculate that it's because the bar already stocked the umbrellas as toothpicks or decoration, so they were more readily available.
Another theory exists that Beach met Yee while vacationing in Hawaii after World War II. It is there that Beach and Yee traded cocktail ideas, recipes, and somewhere along the line, cocktail umbrellas. Afterwards, both of the bartenders began to use the umbrellas in tropical drinks.
Tiki culture craze
Cocktail umbrellas are a
Great Depression-era invention, but they did not take off in popularity until after World War II. According to an
Eater
Eater may refer to:
* Eater (band), an English punk rock group
* "Eater" (''Fear Itself''), a 2008 episode of the NBC television horror anthology ''Fear Itself''
* ''Eater'' (novel), a 2000 science fiction novel by Gregory Benford
* ''Eater'' (w ...
article published in 2015, many people, during the difficult times faced during the Great Depression, saw the South Pacific as "a place of exotic abandon, where you didn't have to work for a living." Many poor Americans saw tiki culture as an escape from reality.
With the rise of the middle class after World War II came families with disposable income. That, combined with Hawaii's statehood and the rise of commercial air travel in the late 1950s, led to an explosion in the popularity of tiki culture dubbed the "tiki craze". Tiki bars like Trader Vic's and Don the Beachcomber took advantage of the tiki craze, inventing slews of cocktails with a key identifying factor: a cocktail umbrella. The cocktail umbrella became synonymous with tiki cocktails, so much so that the drinks are often called "umbrella drinks".
Purpose
![SantaMartaCarnival2013 24](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/SantaMartaCarnival2013_24.JPG)
The true purpose of the cocktail umbrella is unknown. Some bartenders say that the cocktail umbrella is only decorative.
Other bartenders have argued that the umbrella provides shade that slows the melting of ice when the drink is served outdoors. However, the temperature outside matters more than direct sunlight when it comes to the melting of ice. The shade from the cocktail umbrella would do nothing to slow this down.
Another hypothesis about the cocktail umbrella's purpose is that its absence can lead to faster evaporation of alcohol due to direct sunlight when the drink is served outdoors. Chemists reject this idea and explain that the presence of a cocktail umbrella has no effect on this. In the past, cocktail umbrellas have served as a gimmick to draw women into bars that were mostly frequented by men. However, this purpose has faded in current times.
Currently, the cocktail umbrella has become an important part of the drinks it is found on. It has become a garnish that is essential to the identities of these drinks.
Cocktail garnishes started being used in the 19th century, with non-edible garnishes being introduced after prohibition. Two examples of these non-edible garnishes are cocktail umbrellas and
swizzle sticks. Since their introduction, cocktail umbrellas use as a garnish has become a large part of their purpose. As a garnish, they complete the drink's presentation and identify it as tropical. However, cocktail umbrellas differ from other drink garnishes. Unlike foods commonly used as garnishes, such as cherries, olives, or citrus, cocktail umbrellas do not add to the flavor of the drink and have a purely aesthetic purpose.
Alternative uses for cocktail umbrellas also exist. They can be used as toothpicks and may have been used as hat decorations in the past.
It is also possible to use them as hair decorations and
place card
A place card is a piece of paper indicating what table a guest at an event, such as a wedding or banquet, is assigned to sit. Place cards generally have the guest's name and table number, and frequently have some design as well to add style.
Ba ...
s to tell people where to sit at a hosted event.
Uses
![Pina Colada 430 (5076908250)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Pina_Colada_430_%285076908250%29.jpg)
Drinks that commonly use a cocktail umbrella include the
Blue Hawaii, Clipper-Tini, Hawaiian Margarita, Lava Lava, Lava Pi, Mac Nut Martini,
Mai Tai
The Mai Tai is a cocktail made of rum, Curaçao liqueur, orgeat syrup, and lime juice. It is one of the characteristic cocktails in Tiki culture.
History
Victor J. Bergeron claimed to have invented the Mai Tai in 1944 at his restaurant, Trad ...
, and
Piña Colada
The piña colada (; es, piña , "pineapple", and , "strained") is a cocktail made with rum, cream of coconut or coconut milk, and pineapple juice, usually served either blended or shaken with ice. It may be garnished with either a pineapple we ...
.
Though the most common use for the cocktail umbrella is as a
garnish in drinks there are many other uses people have found. As a decoration piece people have used the umbrellas to make wreaths, table centerpieces, lanterns, and even hair pieces. People have also found ways to turn cocktail umbrellas into art, as is the case with
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
trio We Make Carpets. We Make Carpets makes creative carpets out of different everyday objects. For this project, they decided to use 6,000 cocktail umbrellas in their recent creation "Umbrella Carpet 2." This unique use of cocktail umbrellas was displayed at a 2016 design exhibition in the
Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
Venues
The cocktail umbrellas can be seen used in most cocktail lounges, bars, restaurants, and luaus. The most frequent location to spot the umbrella is restaurants and bars that maintain an "island" theme such as Hawaii.
See also
*
Cocktail stick
*
Oil paper umbrella
*
Pizza saver
*
Swizzlestick Tree
*
Tiki mugs
References
Bibliography
*
External links
*
*
{{Bartending
Cocktail garnishes
Eating utensils
Umbrellas
Tiki culture