This Is Exactly What an Exotic Cocktail Should Be

Photo by Dylan+Jeni, from the book Smuggler’s Cove

Ah, morse code. Remember when the concept of American freedom as we knew it depended on morse code? When we had to interpret a series of tones, lights or clicks of varying lengths in order to communicate with someone across the Atlantic?

Of course you don’t. If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you don’t even remember using phones with cords attached to them.

But if you did know morse code, then you’d know that three dots and a dash represents “victory”. And the sweetest victory happens to taste like three cherries (“dots”) and a pineapple chunk (the “dash”). At least that’s the way WWII veteran and founding father of tiki Donn Beach saw it when he invented the three dots and a dash cocktail, a rum-based drink garnished with the aforementioned cherries and pineapple, and if you’re lucky, served in a Polynesian mug that looks like shrunken head.

Like most tiki drinks, the three dots and dash calls for a ridiculous amount of ingredients—nine to be exact, at least in the version Martin Cate serves at highly regarded San Francisco tiki bar Smuggler’s Cove.

Cate uses two kinds of citrus, a couple different sweeteners, two baking spices, two kinds of rum, and bitters.

Nine ingredients might seem like a lot, but as far as tiki drinks go, it’s on the simple side. Especially if you compare it to learning morse code.