As the Trader Vic’s restaurant and food services empire expanded during the 1950s and 1960s, there were several variants of the Mai Tai developed to appeal to different customers. All of these were simply a Mai Tai but with an adjustment to rum or spirit being used. The Menehune Juice was simply a Mai Tai made with light Puerto Rican rum and the Suffering Bastard was one made with three ounces of rum rather than two.
Vic also developed versions using different spirits, including the Pinky Gonzalez with tequila, Honi Honi with bourbon, and the Rusky Tai made with vodka (now designated as “Vodka Tai” on Trader Vic’s menus). Using the Mai Tai as a template, these are all still really great cocktails.
Notable in absentia is the lack of gin Mai Tai, especially since gin was featured in many of Vic’s cocktails. This seemed like a strange omission, so I decided to make one at home using Tanqueray Gin, nicely flavorful at 47% ABV. I was really interested to see how this worked.
It was terrible.
I guess ol’ Vic knew a thing or two about cocktails because for some reason this “Juniper Tai” was truly awful and almost undrinkable. The gin’s Juniper and botanical flavors did not pair well with orange curaçao and almond-forward orgeat. They can’t all be winners, I guess.