The Search for the Ultimate Mai Tai
Traveling the Bay Area and beyond to find the best Mai Tai in the world! Tiki, cocktails, and adventures by Kevin Crossman
The Mai Tai served at House without a Key, Halekulani Hotel in Waikiki
⅓ oz Orgeat
⅓ oz Orange Curacao (Cointreau)
⅓ oz Rock Candy Syrup
1 ¼ oz Lime Juice
¾ oz Bacardi Select/Black Rum
¾ oz Bacardi Gold Rum
Float ½ oz Lemon Hart 151 Rum
This looks like a typical Island Mai Tai but is closer to an original 1944 Mai Tai, and was easily our favorite in Waikiki. (Halekulani website)
This was a development I never saw coming. While I’ve always been a rum guy I would never guessed that I’d drain my one long bottle of Gin long before I’d drain the lone Vodka and Tequila bottles. But I have been enjoying a lot of Gin drinks lately, including the Saturn.
This was posted a couple weeks ago but I did another run and I’m still digging it. Something a little different but still tiki if you ask me.
Innovation Cocktail by Kevin Crossman
1 ounce Passionfruit Syrup
½ ounce Orgeat
½ ounce Blue Curacao Liqueur
2 ounces London Dry Gin (I used Beefeater)
Shake with ice cubes and strain into a coupe glass or wine glass.
Let’s talk about straws
I finished the bottle of the old Appleton Reserve, so I had to have one last wonderful Mai Tai. But I also got to test out some new straws.
I greatly prefer drinking cocktails using thin cocktail straws, unless the cocktail is blended. I just feel like it gives me more of an opportunity to slowly pass the liquid over my tongue. My supply of red plastic cocktail straws was finally depleted and the larger straws just weren’t doing it for me (don’t get me started on metal straws – not for me). And while I could get more red plastic cocktail straws, we all know why that’s not a good environmental choice.
So, I picked these Hay Straws. They have the diameter of the old red plastic ones, but without any of the chemicals. Supposedly gluten-free and all natural. 100% compostable. They worked out really good, good. Way better than the larger diameter plastic or paper straws for being able to drink my Mai Tai the way I like. The straws held up pretty good too, even when I took my time drinking this Mai Tai.
Appleton Reserve is the “middle tier” of Appleton’s mainstream rum brands, sitting in between the lightly aged Appleton Signature and the long aged Appleton 12 Rare Casks. It’s a longer aged rum but is still generally positioned as a mixing rum.
The new edition is an updated blend at 43% ABV (up from 40%) and confers a full 8-year age statement. As with all Jamaican rums, the age statement is the minimum number of years for the rums blended in the finished bottle.
I loved the old Appleton Reserve and it’s wonderful in a Pampanito cocktail from Smuggler’s Cove, and of course in a 1944 Mai Tai. But the new blend definitely is more suited for sipping. I’m tasting a bit more of the vanilla and caramel typically seen in rum aged in oak.
I’m really happy with the new Appleton 8 Year Old Reserve release.
Find some peace this weekend, however you can.
It isn’t a state secret that Trader Vic’s often uses lemon juice in Mai Tais made with the Mai Tai Concentrate. The taste test is comparing a Mai Tai made only with Lime Juice and one made with Lemon and Lime.
¾ oz Lemon Juice (or Lime)
¾ oz Mai Tai Concentrate Mix
2 oz Royal Amber Rum
Shake with crushed ice and pour into glass
Squeeze juice of ¼ Lime Wedge
Garnish with wedge and mint.
Overall this was pretty close but the one with Lemon Juice indeed had a brighter overall taste and just a tad more balanced.
This tasted just like the “Trader Vic’s Mai Tai” from the restaurants.
I had an excellent Mai Tai the other day made with Coruba Jamaican Rum and Hamilton 86 Demerara Rum.
Thanks Terra Fritch and Alex Fritch for the great cocktail and the friendly conversation. A tiny toe dip of normalcy.
