Mai Tai
Two rums, lime, orange curaçao and almond orgeat over crushed ice. The tiki classic is dry, nutty and rum-forward, not a fruit punch.
- MethodShaken
- GlassDouble rocks glass
- IceCrushed
- Strengthabout 15.8% ABV
- BaseRum
- Tastestrong, fruity, sour
Recipe
| 30 ml 1 oz | Jamaican rum (aged) |
| 30 ml 1 oz | Aged rum |
| 30 ml 1 oz | Fresh lime juice |
| 15 ml ½ oz | Dry orange curaçao |
| 15 ml ½ oz | Orgeat (almond syrup) |
| 7.5 ml ¼ oz | Rich syrup (2:1) |
Garnish. A spent lime half placed face down on the ice, with a big sprig of mint beside it to suggest an island and a palm.
Method
- Put all the ingredients in a shaker, keeping one squeezed lime half for the garnish.
- Add a scoop of crushed ice and shake hard for about 10 seconds.
- Pour everything, ice included, into a double rocks glass and top up with more crushed ice.
- Garnish with the lime shell and mint.
About the Mai Tai
A real Mai Tai is a rum drink first: two aged rums, sharpened with lime and softened with almond and orange. It is strong, tart and nutty, amber rather than red, with no pineapple or orange juice in sight. The rums carry it, so this is the place for a characterful Jamaican rum.
History
Documented
Victor Bergeron, the "Trader Vic" of the Polynesian-themed restaurant chain, said he created the Mai Tai at his bar in Oakland, California, in 1944, and gave the name from a Tahitian phrase meaning roughly "good" or "the best". His original used a 17-year-old Jamaican rum; when that ran out the restaurants switched to blends of Jamaican and Martinique rums. The drink spread through Hawaii's resort hotels in the 1950s and was so widely copied, usually badly, that Bergeron later published his own account and recipe to set the record straight.
Legend and lore
Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt, who ran Don the Beachcomber in Hollywood as Donn Beach, claimed in later years that he had made a Mai Tai in the 1930s. The drink attributed to him has a different recipe, and even people close to him said his point was that Bergeron's drink was modelled on one of his. Bergeron's 1944 date also rests on his own word.
Disputed or unclear: Who first made a drink called Mai Tai remains disputed between Trader Vic and Don the Beachcomber, and no early printed recipe settles it.
Variations
Bartender's notes
- Use one funky Jamaican rum and one rounder aged rum; two very light rums make a thin, sweet drink.
- Good orgeat is worth seeking out or making; cheap almond syrups taste of marzipan flavouring.
