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
Kick off Mai Tai anniversary weekend with the ultimate Mai Tai Trivia challenge coming to The Kon-Tiki Oakland on Wednesday August 21 at 7 pm. Mark your calendars and join us for Mai Tai and Tiki Bar trivia, plus drink specials and prizes. Work as an individual or team to win bragging rights for life as the winners of the first and maybe only Mai Tai Trivia night.
Mai Tai Trivia is hosted by Kevin Crossman from Search for the Ultimate Mai Tai and Derek from Make & Drink YouTube.
Some things remain great at the Trader Vic’s San Jose Airport location, including the continued availability of To-Go Cocktails including the Original Mai Tai. That was a great way to kick off our travels to San Diego for Tiki Oasis. Staff here remain super friendly, though their ability to guess my cocktail choice might have had something to do with the shirt I was wearing and not clairvoyance.
Trader Vic’s Hospitality Group’s corporate site labels this location as a Trader Vic’s Outpost, same as the Oakland Airport location that continues to be confirmed as coming soon. These Outpost locations are intended for airports and lobbies, an obviously less immersive location that nonetheless offers travelers a great option to experience Trader Vic’s culinary and cocktail legacy; it’s a great marketing opportunity as well.
At San Jose, the restaurant and bar sits opposite a grab and go location that sells salads, canned drinks, and Trader Vic’s mugs and merch. In the past, the Trader Vic’s Canned Mai Tai was available here, but I confirmed that unfortunately the product is no longer being produced. A variety of beers and RTD cocktails are available here instead, notably not including a Mai Tai from On the Rocks or Cutwater for obvious reasons.
The Outpost Grab and Go location now includes some pretty nice looking bowls that are on-par with the restaurant across the way, plus some Salmon and Short Rib plates that look delicious. This is a big improvement in terms of the grab and go items.
The bad thing about the Search for the Ultimate Mai Tai is that you sometimes have to take one of the team and try a cocktail that isn’t the best. Sometimes they’re the very worst. But sometimes these expected bad Mai Tais aren’t bad at all, in fact they’re great.
Such was the case at the Tommy Bahama Marlin Bar at the Fashion Valley Mall in San Diego. This bar and restaurant is attached outside to the Tommy Bahama clothing store and the mall is right behind the hotel where we’re staying for Tiki Oasis. “Why not, I’m on vacation” was the concept for ordering the Frozen Mai Tai and this cocktail was a total delight. Really good flavors that actually resembled a Mai Tai along with plenty of Trader Vic’s Dark rum meant this was plenty boozy and totally satisfying.
For lunch I did the Poke Bowl and this too was quite good with plenty of ingredients and complex but approachable flavors. The lunch was so good we made a second visit on the trip and found the results to just as great.
I didn’t have “Top 20 Mai Tai of the year” on my bingo card, but the Tommy Bahama Frozen Mai Tai is now in the running.
My biggest regret from not attending past Tiki Oasis events was missing great musical performances from artist I am following. So it was a dream come true to see Sweden’s Ixtahuele perform last night.
Promoting their excellent new exotica album Pathways to Paradise, the band played a tight hour plus set including a couple of appearances by Crazy Al Evans and Medusirena the Fire eating Mermaid.
I went over to the merch table afterwards and both Johan and Mattias recognized me, calling out “Mr Ultimate Mai Tai.” Unbelievable. The band was kind enough to autograph the album and pose for a photo.
Sponsored by Denizen Rum
While the first Mai Tai was born with long-aged pot-still Jamaican rum, over the decades the Trader used rums from various islands and styles to produce Mai Tais for different purposes. Learn how the rums and recipes for the Mai Tai evolved over the years, and how changing the rum can make your Mai Tai more palatable for your guests. Think you know everything about rum in a Mai Tai? Prepare to have your assumptions challenged.
Thank you to Tiki Oasis for the opportunity and for everyone who attended.
This seems to be our new tradition to have brunch at South San Francisco’s Hula Hoops after an overnight in the City. The Lilikoi Pancakes were excellent again, and I checked another cocktail off my Hula Hoops cocktail checklist.
The Luzon Chiller is a dry Lemon Drop riff made with rum, elderflower, and lemon. Bartender Maria suggested she could add sugar if we wanted it more sweet but I found that it being a little dry was a plus. Very crisp and even the light rum is so much better than vodka.
It isn’t just a fabulous cocktail, one of our favorites. It comes with a Banana Chip and you can use the cocktail as a dip!
Our drinks on Saturday at Zombie Village were just as great as we’ve come to expect, including that blended Disco Banana with cinnamon and potent rums. The place was medium busy around 9:30 and in addition to the Disco Banana Mrs. Mai Tai also had the Coco Pandan that comes with an ube popsicle.
Meanwhile, I tried the Over the Garden Wall from the seasonal cocktail menu. This has Indonesian rum, elderflower, absinthe, coconut, citrus, and spice. I will say this leaned very close to being too spicy hot for me, but overall I liked the complex flavors. It was pretty good, but I should have ordered the Disco Banana.
