The 1953 Royal Hawaiian Mai Tai Didn’t have Pineapple Juice

Yes, we would break several laws to climb to the top of the Empire State Building to help everyone learn that the Mai Tai that Trader Vic brought to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in 1953 did not contain any pineapple juice.

It is easy to see how this myth developed, as there weren’t a lot of vintage 1950s era Mai Tai recipes floating around and there was no effort to tie these loose ends together until our work on this started in 2021. Once all the pieces were gathered it was clear that not only did Trader Vic not add pineapple juice to the Mai Tai in 1953, there aren’t any published recipes calling for pineapple until the 1960s!

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