A recent blog mentioned Aggie Grey’s Hotel in Apia, but what about the woman it is named after? She’s a bit of a legend and was certainly a colourful character…
Aggie was born in 1897 and died in 1988. She was friends with author James Michener and is said to be the inspiration for the character Bloody Mary in his book, Tales of the South Pacific (which was the basis for the musical South Pacific). In the artwork portrait right she may look like a tropical cross between Queen Elizabeth and Miss Marple but she was a bit of a wild lass in her youth.
I once had a delightful dinner with her granddaughter, Aggie Grey Jnr, who introduced me to the famous Aggie Grey cocktail. It is said to have so much alcohol in it that no one has ever finished one. I couldn’t finish mine, possibly because there was also a lot of tropical fruit juice and the size of the glass could have provided a home for a few schools of goldfish. The story goes that Grandma Aggie gave birth to a child in the bar cellar and came upstairs to celebrate – “Drinks are on the house!” she shouted. The patrons nearly drank the bar dry and for the final round Aggie poured what was left in every bottle into a huge glass and topped it up with tropical juice – and that is the mysterious cocktail!