We guested on Make & Drink to try Mai Tais made with eight different aged Jamaica rums in a Mai Tai, in order to determine the best single bottle rum of the bunch.
The rums included:
Appleton 8
Appleton Signature
Denizen Merchant’s Reserve
Monymusk Classic Gold
Planteray Xaymaca
Rum Bar Gold
Smith & Cross
Worthy Park Select
The results were really interesting and based on the ranking by both Derek and me even a little bit shocking. Watch the video to see which rums we rated the highest and which one was the overall winner.
Yes, it’s a Mai Tai. It has lime, rum, orange liqueur, and orgeat – just like a Mai Tai should. But we are substituting a high quality Blue Curacao in place of the Orange Curacao and using flavorful clear rum, letting that sweet blue color shine. Giffard is our strongly preferred brand of choice and the best Blue Curacao by a mile.
Any quality aged white rum would do fine here. I’m using Denizen Aged White rum but Probitas, Hamilton White Stache or Breezeway Blend, or even Planteray 3 Star would be fine. You just want to have a little age on the rum to impart some barrel notes that nod to the Mai Tai’s original long-aged rum. Any Overproof Jamaica rum such as Wray & Nephew, Rum Bar, Worthy Park, or Monymusk would fit the bill here though in this case I’m using Rum Fire.
Blue Mai Tai 1 oz Lime Juice ½ oz Orgeat (Latitude 29) ¼ oz Simple Syrup ½ oz Giffard Curaçao Bleu ½ oz Denizen Aged White Rum 1 oz Rum Fire Overproof Jamaica Rum Shake with crushed ice and garnish with mint.
The clearer and less brown/cloudy your orgeat is the better. Latitude 29 fits the bill perfectly and could be used at ¾ oz to omit the simple syrup entirely.
You can’t do this at every bar, and even at some bars where they know you it can be a dick move if they’re completely slammed, but sometimes it’s amazing when you ask the bartender to riff on something or use a special ingredient for drink. Such was the case on Friday when I popped into downtown Oakland’s Kon-Tiki while on my way to a party.
Kon-Tiki is now using a somewhat pared down menu, though it still includes the Grog, Zombie, Uma Uma, and Virgin’s Sacrifice that have been on every menu since day one. There’s also their standard Mai Tai, which is a steal at $14 and remains one of our Top 10 Mai Tais in the world. There’s also a $44 Mai Tai using some rare Samaroli rum, if you want to spoil yourself.
The bar was busy but not yet overly so, so I asked for an “impress me” Mai Tai. What came back was a really great one using Monymusk Special Reserve Jamaica rum, a blend of rums aged for at least 10 years. Comparable to Appleton 8 or 12, with a tad more funky taste. This was a rich Mai Tai that was perfect for a one and done visit. We thank Carlos for making a great choice.
Kon-Tiki was playing a nice mix of soul-leaning tunes, nothing too familiar or poppy and nicely giving off 1970s vibes. A couple big groups came in as I was finishing, and it really remains a place where the guests and staff give off a lot of great energy.
Just wanted to highlight this recently issued mug by Woody Miller for Zombie Village. The design pays tribute to Zombie’s cool private huts, and the glass float comes in a variety of colors. It’s really incredibly well done, among Woody’s best.
The initial release for this was August 24 and the first run is already sold out. But I believe more are in the pipeline.
It’s nice to see Zombie doing something to raise their profile and bring some new mindshare to their now well-established venue. People love excuses to revisit places, especially if the place isn’t totally local or if there are logistical challenges to visiting (cause, there are some with this location…). Our visit coincided with the Trader Vic’s Tiki Tai crawl but we’ve been to Zombie Village severaltimes the past year and they’re still making cocktails very well.
The San Francisco Rum Festival returned to SOMArts Cultural Center and filled the venue with rum producers from across the globe. Sunday of Labor Day Weekend meant that rum was flowing freely, especially during a sort of happy hour portion later in the day called DaiquiriMANIA where many of the vendors offered Daiquiri cocktails to allow attendees to sample the rum in a cocktail. This portion was accompanied by a DJ playing mostly 80s hits and was a good option when more “casual rum fans” enter the building. This was an interesting idea I hope they revisit, and I got a truly excellent Passion Fruit Vanilla Daiquiri made by Tiki Lindy at the Myrtle Bank Jamaica rum table.
Being an experienced rum drinker, I skipped a lot of the tables and focused on things new to me. I made a beeline to the Worthy Park table to taste their wonderful new Overproof expression, finding it to be a good middle ground option between market leader Wray Overproof and cult king Rum Fire. Speaking of overproof, Oakland’s Wright & Brown had several expressions and I found their unaged Overproof to be an excellent rum that shows this style of rum doesn’t always have to be Jamaican. I also finally got to taste El Dorado’s High Ester expression, a total flavor bomb that was right up my alley. Lemon Hart’s 151 has been reformulated and tastes great.
In terms of Industry news, it sounds like Rhum Barbancourt’s availability issues will be remedied in the coming months, perfect if you’ve looking for their amazing unaged Haitian Proof expression. Similarly, Saint Benevolence mentioned they’re made some improvements to their aging program that should see their amazing Aged Rum Clairin to be more available soon as well. Sadly, it doesn’t seem like the distribution situation for Diamond Reserve rums is going any better, which is too bad because they’re great cocktail rums.
I attended a couple of the educational sessions with Kate Perry and Arminder Randhawa. The first was a blind test of expressions from Perry’s La Maison & Vellier product line. These are mostly high end limited expressions from countries rare to find in America, such as Shakara rum from Thailand and various limited editions from Transcontinental Rum Line, and being not so familiar with the line I did poorly at guessing (I had a great time drinking great rum, though). A second session provided compare and contrast opportunities with rum samples comparing cane vs. molasses, still type, and aging type. This was super informative and I’d love to see this come back next year.
The patio featured a couple vendors plus Doc Parks and Julio Palacios serving some of Parks’ always amazing cocktails. This rum festival continues to be a highlight of the year and a great opportunity for anyone looking to learn more about rum.
Saint BenevolenceJulio and DocLemon Hart RumCheers from SF Rum Fest
The education-oriented Rum Congress was added to the San Francisco Rum Festival this year, offering deep dives into everyone’s favorite spirit. Rum Fest is returning to SOMArts Cultural Center this year.
Most of the sessions were hosted by a rum brand, with flowing samples provided. Plus, Rums of Puerto Rico had a series of cocktails after each session that featured a variety of Puerto Rican rums. These ranged from simple spritzers to a delicious rum punch.
I presented a session with Rum Wonk Matt Pietrek called Rums of the Mai Tai – Secrets Revealed. This covered the evolution of rums in the Trader Vic’s Mai Tai, with deep dives on the original J. Wray & Nephew 17, the rums of the original Hawaiian Mai Tai, and the 1950s era Martinique rhum. We had a receptive audience that asked detailed follow-up questions, and the Rum Fest staff had a great visual setup for slides. Thanks to Sam for the photos.
Other sessions included Pietrek and Alexander Gabriele discussing some details of Navy Rum and the new Planteray Mister Fogg rum, then both signed copies of their new book on the subject. Gabriele also presented a session about the West Indies Rum Distillery in Barbados. Rum Champion Bryan Inman led a session about French rhum including reps and samples from Rhum Barbancourt. The last session was very loose but still enjoyable as Rum Lab’s Fede Hernandez led a session talking about Puerto Rican rums in tiki cocktails.
This was supposed to be my “dry” day at Rum Fest but it was anything but. It sounds like the team is interested in trying to make Rum Congress an ongoing component of the event. If this kind of event appeals to you, leave a comment with what kind of sessions you’d like to see in the future.
Happy Mai Tai Day 2024! The Mai Tai was born in Oakland in 1944 and thanks to that city’s proclamation, we celebrate Mai Tai Day every August 30th. From humble beginnings and a few years in relative obscurity, the Mai Tai was Hawaii’s viral sensation in the 1950s. Starting in the 1960s, the Mai Tai evolved to incorporate pineapple juice.
You can learn more about the history of the Mai Tai with our long-form article. The essay covers the early years featuring long-aged Jamaica rums, the unusual rum blend in that original Hawaiian Mai Tai, a bit about the dark years, and the renaissance of cocktail that took place at the same time that premium rums became a market force.
The Mai Tai was created by Trader Vic Bergeron at the original Trader Vic’s, but we also highlight other notable figures in the Mai Tai’s significant contribution to cocktail culture including Jeff “Beachbum” Berry, Martin Cate, and Michael Thanos. Plus the bartenders of the craft cocktail revolution who recognized that Vic’s original Mai Tai was a milestone cocktail that deserves to be on the menu at any quality tiki or craft cocktail bar.
So, Mai Tai Nation, today’s the day. Raise a glass as a salute to the Trader and anyone who celebrates the world’s best tropical cocktail. Cheers, friends, long live the Mai Tai.
Mai Tai week continues with a twist, thanks to Derek from Make & Drink who treated me to a Mai Tai Slushie made in his Ninja machine. Derek is launching Make & Drink Frozen, a new YouTube channel devoted to frozen cocktails, so check out today’s video and also give his new channel a watch.
Derek’s slushie was comparable to the one I had with an industrial machine at Tommy Bahama’s Marlin bar in San Diego. Three fine Jamaica rums were used in Derek’s Mai Tai, and you could float some rum for additional flavor or ABV if that’s your thing.
