The Mai Tai is the cocktail Trader Vic invented in 1944 in Oakland and that has been ruined by every tiki bar since.
Why you are pouring this tonight
The Mai Tai is the cocktail Trader Vic invented in 1944 in Oakland and that has been ruined by every tiki bar that came after. The real one has no orange juice, no grenadine, no neon-blue anything. It is rum, lime, orange curaçao, orgeat, a teaspoon of rich syrup, a float of dark rum on top, crushed ice, lime hull as a tiny boat for a slap-mint sprig. Done correctly it is one of the great cocktails. Done badly it is a punchbowl confessional.
Orgeat is the part most home bars don’t have. Buy a bottle of Small Hand Foods or Liber and Co orgeat from a good bottle shop or online. Almond extract is not a substitute. Use Appleton 12 or El Dorado 8 for the aged rum. Hamilton Black or Myers’s for the float. Whip-shake for eight seconds with two cubes of ice (you want quick chill without over-dilution), open-pour everything into a double rocks glass, float the dark rum over the back of a barspoon. The lime hull turned upside down is the small flag at the end of the show.
What to pour it alongside
Drink with grilled prawns, jerk chicken, or any time you want to be on a holiday you cannot afford. Coconut prawns work especially well.
Notes
Orgeat is the part most home bars don’t have. Buy a bottle of Small Hand Foods or Liber & Co orgeat from a good bottle shop or online. Don’t substitute almond extract, you will get a chemical drink. The orgeat carries the cocktail.
The recipe
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