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
If you’re looking for something bright and orange to celebrate Hulaween this season, you might consider this Tiki Tropics Radiance shirt by Orrede. It’s 100% cotton with matching pockets and plackets, which I appreciate. That’s me at Forbidden Island yesterday and I’m pretty sure I was hard to miss in the crowd.
You can learn more at orredeocean.com, and you’ll save 15% with the code ALOHA15.
Thanks to Orrede for providing the shirt.
We had a fun afternoon in Alameda for the 19th annual Parking Lot Sale at Forbidden Island. There are multiple vendors surrounding FI’s still thriving outdoor patio, with a couple drinks available in the outdoor bar and a full menu available for order inside. The vendors are mostly different on Sunday, offering an opportunity to review additional offerings during the weekend.
Mrs. Mai Tai picked up this cute Candy Corn Tiki Bob and a tiki hut pin. Meanwhile, I had a pretty good Mai Tai and a surprisingly good non-alcoholic Mai Tai that’s tangy and refreshing.
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.
We had a nice treat Sunday afternoon at the latest quarterly meeting of Dr. Funk’s rum club, the Rum Asylum. These meetings are open to anyone, including a bunch of folks who joined during Sunday’s session. The Rum Asylum is a self-guided journey through rum, where your purchased rum pours are tracked on a checklist.
The focus this time was on Barbados rums from the Foursquare Distillery, including the Probitas blended white rum, the aged R.L. Seale’s finest Barbados rum, and the flagship Foursquare 2011 Exceptional Cask Series. Chris from Altamar walked us through details of the distillery and production methods, and then provided guided tasting notes to compare and contrast. The session completed with a raffle of some bottles for those in attendance, including the 2011 ECS release.
There was also a speciality cocktail using these rums called Aster and Primrose, said to be “a rum lovers cocktail” and priced at just $11. I stuck with the poured rums since I was driving.
Several Rum Asylum members reached their next levels. Greg completed Level I’s 20 rums and had to pledge an oath to get the Level II list and a pin. Meanwhile, Nik finished Level III and received a pin and pith helmet along with the Level III list.
The next Rum Asylum meeting is December 21st at 3 pm. There’s additional info about the Rum Asylum on Dr. Funk’s website.
Today we’re looking at one of the most iconic rum styles, the overproof white rum from Jamaica. This style has emerged in the past couple decades in cocktail circles as a seminal rum for mixing, wildly different to how it is consumed by Jamaicans who typically use it as a mixer with water or Ting grapefruit soda. These unaged rums are issued at 63% ABV, and thanks to long fermentation they feature bold flavors and a fragrance that’ll fill a room.
The contenders:
It was easy to pick Rum Fire out of this lineup simply on the nose, but I liked the tomato notes from Rum Bar’s nose even more. There’s a pronounced nail polish aroma and flavor that I found pleasant from J.B. and it seems to be heavier in body than Wray & Nephew.
I chose the winner because I found it to be the most balanced and had a great mouthfeel.
Winner: Rum Bar Overproof
2nd: Charley’s J.B.
3rd: Rum Fire
The differences between these rums, aside from Rum Fire, were more muted when I did a 4:1 mix with Squirt grapefruit soda.
Rum Fire was the most flavorful here but introduced harsher notes that weren’t my favorite. I was pleased that Worthy Park Overproof played better in this format and disappointed that Wray and J.B. didn’t hold up as well to the soda. My favorite struck a balance of bold flavors and was a perfect complement to the soda.
Winner: Rum Bar Overproof
2nd: Worthy Park Overproof
3rd: Rum Fire
This is pretty shocking, and a bit of a bummer since this expression isn’t available outside of Jamaica now. I’ve always felt that Rum Bar Overproof was a great middle ground between the market leaders; it has a heavier body than Wray but more approachable flavors than Rum Fire. All of these rums are delicious but in these blind tests Rum Bar Overproof was the clear winner.
The Fat Pigeon seems to be the Tri-Valley’s go-to venue for cocktail pop-ups, previously hosting Miracle at Christmas, Golden Girls, and Alice in Wonderland themes previously. Since spooky season is upon us, there’re now running a Halloween theme.
The setup includes a special cocktail menu including low ABV and mocktail options, plus fun and fairly elaborate decor. There are no special costumes or wildly immersive soundscapes, though, just fun drinks in a welcoming venue.
I enjoyed the 13 Stabs Later, a refreshing drink with soda and blood orange apéritif that leans fruity. Meanwhile, Mrs. Mai Tai tried the Offering which is a clarified drink including bourbon and pumpkin spices. It’s served with a Biscoff cookie which you’re supposed to take a bite of before taking a sip.
The highlight for us was the Spooky Tini Flight, with an okay Espresso Martini but amazing Bad Apple and Pumpkin Spice variants. The little tiny martini glasses are a fun delivery method and we enjoyed rotating the display to get to our favorite item.
As pop-ups go, Fat Pigeon seems to have the format and execution locked in. The atmosphere is fun and the quality cocktails offer something for nearly everyone.
Believe it or not!
You’d think that after spending something like 12 hours at Trader Vic’s this week that I’d have found time somewhere for a Mai Tai. But since I was drinking rum all day at the SF Rum Festival – and I was driving – it didn’t seem prudent.
I did enjoy this Coral Reef, a non-alcoholic slushy with strawberry and coconut. Yummy.
