Derek from the Make & Drink YouTube channel asked me to come up with a two-rum Mai Tai as simpler version of our four-rum Ultimate Mai Tai. This was actually harder than you’d think, and I decided that using Appleton 12 and Smith & Cross from the Ultimate Mai Tai blend was sort of a cop out (though those two rums are fabulous in a Mai Tai). I ended up going with some newer rum expressions that are among my favorites.
The Penultimate Mai Tai by Kevin Crossman
1 oz Lime Juice
½ oz Latitude 29 Orgeat
¼ oz Demerara Syrup
½ oz Quality Orange Curacao
1½ oz Worthy Park 109 Jamaica Rum
½ oz Kuleana Rum Works Hawaiian Rum Agricole
Shake with ice and garnish with lime and mint.
The Worthy Park is a boozy and flavorful dark rum, similar in style to the punch rums from the 1950s. There is a little bit of the “funk” common to many Jamaica rums but there’s also a charred backbone as well. This rum is becoming more widely available and there’s literally nothing like it on the market today. Subbing an 80 proof dark Jamaica rum like Coruba or Myers’s isn’t going to provide the same results.
There’s a tradition of using Rhum Agricole in Mai Tais, so I thought I’d include a cane juice-based rum. My favorite in this style are the cane rums from Hawaii, which aren’t as grassy as those from Martinique but also have more flavor than some of the delicate Cachacas from Brazil. If you can’t find Kuleana or KōHana, then Copalli from Belize is a good sub.
Thanks to Derek for having me back on the channel to talk about Mai Tais once again. Look for a super interesting collaboration coming soon.
Is this the second to last Mai tai!?!? I need to try this. Funk is my absolute jam. Thanks guys!
We thought it meant second best, not second to worst. I guess we should’ve read the dictionary.
The more I think about it “second to last” is sort of misleading. If you’re leveling up to something where “last” is the pinnacle or the best, the penultimate is really good. Not “second to worst”.
I tried the Penultimate MaiTai per the recipe above.
While it was good, though not near the excellence of the Ultimate Mai Tai, the selection of the Kuleana Rum over Appleton 12 is puzzling.
A 1oz-to-1oz blend of Appleton 12 and Worthy Park 109 won our in-house tasting (My wife & myself). Substituting Appleton 21 for Appleton 12 was also a superior combination.
The use of the Hawaiian rum was to do things. Firstly, it is a nod to the use of Agricole in the Mai Tai, and the use of a Dark Jamaican is a nod to the rums used in the original Hawaiian Mai Tai (a dark Jamaican and a light rum).
This isn’t intended to be the Ultimate (hence the name) nor the greatest. It is just intended to be an interesting variant.
Thanks for the prompt response.
I understand your logic and have thereby expanded to additional variants.