Labor Day marks summer's swan song, so let's close the show with a splash by busting out a sunny, tropical tiki drink: the Miehana.

The Miehana (pronounced Mee-ha-na) was created in the mid-1990s by Jeff "Beachbum" Berry, a leading expert on all things tiki, for a tiki-culture museum exhibit in Anaheim, California. Its predominant orange flavor is a nod to pre-Disney Anaheim, when the town was known for its orange groves. In fact, read the name of this cocktail backward and, well … just try it.

The tiki bar trend enjoyed an extraordinarily long run, spanning from the post-Prohibition 1930s all the way to the '70s disco days. (And it's coming back big time, by the way.) The first one, Don the Beachcomber's, popped up in Hollywood in 1934 and was run by the famous gentleman who went by the same, and has created many classic tiki cocktails, perhaps most notably the Zombie. "This was a mega-hip spot in its day, frequented by the Hollywood elite," says Berry. And their influence changed the perception of rum drinks from cheap to chic forever. "These guys were used to drinking gin and scotch, but Don elevated rum with his drinks, and it became a nationwide sensation." The fad endured for more than 40 years and inspired the launch of thousands of bars and restaurants across the United States.

Tiki bars and drinks have always been considered Polynesian, but the truth is that all tiki drinks derive from Caribbean flavors, which start with the "holy trinity" of Caribbean mixology—rum, lime, and sugar. From this base, bartenders would branch out and experiment with various combinations to add dimension to the cocktail. Instead of sugar, for example, they'd try a syrup of honey and passionfruit as a sweetener, and then perhaps combine lemon and lime for the sour component. They would mix up different rums as well, marrying a perfumey Jamaican rum with a smoky demerara. "All these dribbles, dashes, and dollops of other flavoring agents helped create baroque masterpieces out of what began as a very simple Caribbean template," Berry says.

And that's why so many tiki drinks can have so many damned ingredients. The Miehana is relatively sparse as tiki drinks go. It's simple to make because it has equal amounts of each ingredient, but you'll still achieve the balance and dimension you're looking for. So enjoy the long weekend with your feet in the sand and a taste of "summer in a glass" as the sun sets gracefully on the season. Mahalo!

Miehana
Recipe courtesy of Jeff  "Beachbum" Berry

What you'll need:
1 oz fresh lime juice
1 oz orange juice
1 oz unsweetened pineapple juice
1 oz Grand Marnier
1 oz gold Puerto Rican rum
1 oz coconut rum (Cruzan is good)

How to make it:
Shake with ice cubes. Pour into a tall glass. Garnish with an orange wheel, a stick of pineapple, and an orchid. 

Via: Happy Hour The Miehana