052 – Mai Tai

A Sydney Covid ‘lock-down’ exploration of the ‘Mai Tai’ cocktail.

Lock-down has inspired me to explore this famous cocktail, in its original 1944 form, no pineapple, no orange and no grenadine. As designed by Trader Vic.

Make your own ‘mix-at-home’ #Locktail ‘Mai Tai’ in original (or near original) 1944 style.

METHOD – Chill a double rocks glass or Mai Tai specifically designed glass and fill with crushed or shaved ice. Squeeze the lime juice over the ice and keep one-half shell for garnish. Add into the glass 7.5ml orgeat syrup, 7.5ml rock candy syrup (super saturated sugar version of simple syrup), 15ml orange curaçao, and 30ml each of aged (ideally over 10-years) Jamaican gold rum and Martinique molasses rum. Shake gently in the glass. Decorate (garnish) with the half-lime-shell, fresh mint and a fruit stick.

HISTORICAL NOTES – Created by Victor Jules Bergeron (1902–1984, known as ‘Trader Vic’) at his Oakland Restaurant’s Bar in 1944. In his own words, he was looking to create a new drink, and made the first for his friends Ham and Carrie Guild who were in Oakland from Tahiti. On tasting the mix, Carrie exclaimed “Maita’i roa a’e” which translates as “out of this world”, and the ‘Mai Tai’ name was born.

Trader Vic used a 17-year-aged gold rum from Jamaica (J. Wray Nephew Rum), later adding Martinique (molasses) rum to his mix, because he was using less-aged Jamaican Rum in his ‘Trader Vic’s’ Rum mix and the cocktails being made in his restaurant. The cocktail was so successful that it played a big part in depleting Rum supplies in the late 1940’s and 1950’s, and certainly any supplies of the J. Wray Nephew 17-year-old of the original mix.

Rivalry between ‘Zombie’ creator Donn Beach and Trader Vic was intense. Trader Vic had copied elements of Donn’s ‘Beachcomber’ restaurant model and joined growth in the ‘Tiki’ craze that Donn has started. Later Donn Beach claimed that he had invented the ‘Mai Tai’, even launching a rival ‘Mai Tai’ mix that claimed to be the original and that Trader Vic had copied his ‘Q.B. Cooler’ punch. The fight went to court, and with an affidavit from Carrie Guild along with other evidence, Trader Vic won the case for the ‘Mai Tai’ and it is his recipe that survived.

In 1954 Trader Vic changed the recipe in Hawaii to include pineapple and orange juice, apparently to make it more ‘tourist friendly’. Unfortunately this also added to confusion about the correct or at least original ‘Mai Tai’ recipe. In more recent times low-grade rum, poor other inclusions and the choice by some Bartenders to add pineapple juice, grenadine and orange juice had seen the decline of the ‘Mai Tai’s’ popularity.

THE OFFICIAL MIX – The ‘Mai Tai’ appears on the International Bartender Association’s (IBA) ‘Contemporary Classics’ official drinks lists. The recipe calls for 30ml Amber Jamaican Rum, 30ml Martinique Molasses Rhum, 15ml Orange Curaçao, 10ml orgeat syrup, 30ml fresh lime juice and 7.5ml of simple syrup. Shaken and poured (with the ice) into a double rocks or highball glass. Garnish with pineapple spear, mint leaves and lime peel. This is close to Trader Vic’s 1972 ‘Bartender’s Guide: Revised Edition’ which is a more definitive official recipe that I have used in the ingredients details above.

TASTING NOTES – The original is clearly a rum drink, not jumped-up pineapple and orange juice. So you get rewarded for good quality rum, either a 17-year old Jamaican (60ml) or more likely a combination of less aged Jamaican (30ml) and a good quality Martinique molasses Rhum (30ml) and then you have this great smooth Rum forward drink with plenty of funkiness and hogo. The sweeteners are the combination of orgeat, rock candy syrup and orange curaçao, for a total of 30ml. Don’t overshoot, this is just the right balance with a hint of orange and a hint of almond – and not over sweet. Finally sourness from the fresh lime and then the smell of lime and mint while you drink it. Made with the best ingredients you can, to the right balance (Trader Vic’s recipe), this is a first-class cocktail experience.

LOCKTAIL CHANGES – No changes, just a rewind to the original, as close to the 1944-version that had Carrie Guild utter the famous Tahitian exclamation that created the name, as I can manage in 2021. Quality Jamaican Rum (Plantation 2005 12-year aged Jamaican) and Martinique Rhum (Rhum J.M – V.S.O.P.), fresh ingredients and the right proportions.

YOUR LOCKTAIL EXPERIENCE – If you’d rather taste than read, I am progressively building an ingredient list and other sourcing information on this site. I will re-use ingredients where I can (good for my budget too), so that the cost goes down overtime if you are ‘playing at home’.

Let me know what you think.

Cocktails you’d like reinvented.

Recipes you’ve tried and your ‘score’.

This is second cocktail from the 1941-1950 bracket of ‘Locktail’ remixes. Full list in the index.