Prep work for my Tiki Kon presentation starts with revisiting the 1956 Mai Tai recipe. This was provided by Trader Vic himself to a customer and propertied to be the recipe used at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. Definitely different than the classic 1944 recipes, but most certainly not an Island Mai Tai with pineapple juice.
Original 1956 Mai Tai recipe: Juice of One Lime Dash of Rock Candy Syrup Dash of Curacao Dash of Orgeat 1½ ounces Trader Vic’s Puerto Rican Rum ¾ ounce Myers’s Plantation Punch Rum Stir and decorate with fresh mint
1956 Mai Tai – Adjusted for 2022 1 ounce Lime Juice ¼ ounce Rock Candy Syrup ¼ ounce Curacao ¼ ounce Orgeat 1½ ounces Lightly Aged Puerto Rican Rum ¾ ounce Hamilton 114 rum or Worthy Park 109 rum Mix in 16 ounce tumbler glass with shaved ice. Drop half a spent lime shell in the glass. Stir and decorate with fresh mint.
As if you need any more excuses to attend Tiki Kon this year, you can come attend my seminar on the De-Evolution of the Hawaiian Mai Tai. This session is based on the same research I did for the forthcoming article for next month’s issue of Exotica Moderne magazine and will include additional detail, content, media, and stories.
The session explodes a few myths about this iconic drink, as well as the timeline for when the cocktail changed at the iconic Royal Hawaiian Hotel.
Tiki Kon: Rim of Fire is in Portland from July 1-3. Learn more at www.tikikon.com.
Mrs. Mai Tai hosted her monthly Book Club with friends and asked me to make cocktails for the group. This was the menu I came up with, intended to present some different kinds of flavors than are usually seen on mainstream cocktail menus.
The Pampanito: a Smuggler’s Cove recipe featuring Molasses Syrup
Saturn: a Gin-based cocktail with exotic cocktail sweeteners
Blue Hawaii: I included a little quarter ounce of Wray & Nephew Overproof to give this a little extra kick of flavor
Tradewinds: a great combination of coconut plus Apricot Liqueur
The cocktail that blew everyone away was the Saturn, served up. Even the attendees who said they didn’t like Gin found this delightful. I made more of these than the other cocktails combined.
I can see why people build or acquire bars for their homes; trying to make this many drinks sink-side in the kitchen is kind of a pain. But at least the results came out great.
Such a great event at Oceanic Arts in Whittier, CA, which hosted the second of five special events to celebrate the legacy of the decor supplier to so many tiki bars and Polynesian restaurants.
The Oceanic Arts warehouse has been transformed into an event space with two stages, several bars, space for food vendors, and still has space to show off many of the items from the collection. An auction later this month will clear the space and owners Bob Van Oosting and LeRoy Schmaltz will retire after running OA since 1956.
This event featured a slideshow from Sven Kirsten documenting the tiki revival from the late 1980s to early 2000s. Though not focusing on OA specifically, Sven worked through several notable mentions of items that originated from there. There were also talks about creating your own home bar as well as one on home cocktails.
Several great musical acts played the event. We were welcomed by Jill Martini and the Shrunken Heads as we entered the event, and later saw the Ding Don Devils, Creepxotica, and The Hula Girls play. The volcano stage build inside was elaborate and was smoking all night as if it might actually erupt.
Creepxotica
We’d heard the first night had some issues with the cocktails, but thankfully all those kinks were worked out for us. There were two main bar stations, hosted by Long Beach bars Bamboo Club and Secret Island Tiki Restaurant and Music Longe. We especially liked the Dr. Bamboo from Bamboo Club. There were a few food booths including a place doing Chicken and Tofu Satay that Mrs. Mai Tai and I both loved.
We saw so many old and new friends in attendance. I spoke with many who had always meant to visit Oceanic Arts but never made the time. We were sadly in that club too. So, while we celebrate the legacy of Oceanic Arts we must remind ourselves to make doing these visits a priority. You never know when they’ll be gone.
Thanks to Peekabo Gallery for putting on such a great event.
Mrs. Mai Tai, everyoneLeRoy’s WorkshopSven Kirsten’s presentation
I grew up a half mile from Dinah’s Hotel in Palo Alto but have never stayed or eaten on the hotel property. There was a Trader Vic’s adjacent to the hotel from 2001-2012 that I visited several times but during these years I was not a tiki bar regular. The Vic’s was owned by Dinah’s hotel owner as a franchise, and fit in well with the oceanic art that is pervasive on the grounds at Dinah’s. There’s even a remnant from Trader Vic himself (see photo, bottom left).
There’s a “Trader Vic’s Mai Tai” on the menu at Dinah’s Poolside Restaurant, so I decided to check it out over lunch. “Rum, dark rum, orange curaçao, lime juice” is the description and it does seem like maybe there’s no orgeat. But as Mai Tais go, this one wasn’t too bad. My Wagyu Burger was quite tasty.
The grounds are filled with lush feature, ponds, statues, and artifacts from Papua New Guinea, Polynesia, and Africa. The neon sign was something I remember seeing as we drove by when I was a kid.
Did a little playing around with the Planter’s Punch by adding a drop of Pernod and using ½ oz Simple and ½ oz Falernum for the sweetener. It was good but not great. Back to the drawing board.
I ran across this recipe from cocktail developer extraordinaire Nathan Robinson and thought I’d try it. It didn’t hurt to use one of my favorite rums, the unaged Clairin from Saint Benevolence. This is a wonderful cocktail.
96 TEARS 2 oz Haitian Clairin, unaged (Saint Benevolence) ¾ oz oz Orgeat ¾ oz oz Lime juice 3 dashes Angostura bitters Recipe by Nathan Robinson, 2021
Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a lime.
