Mystery has always been central to tiki's appeal. The sleight of hand inherent to the genre's allure can range from the benign'encrypted recipes, hushed techniques'to the elaborate: the culturally obtuse cultivation of Asian, Caribbean, Hawaiian and Oceanian customs, all in the name of a faux-tropical experience. Of all the people shortchanged by this fast-and-loose dedication to fantasy, however, no group has been as overlooked as the Filipinos, whose contributions to the birth, growth and survival of tropical drinks cannot be overstated.