cocktail umbrellas are a great depression-era invention, but they didn't take off in popularity until after world war ii. according to an eater 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".