Category: History

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Mai Tai Happy Hour Private Event

As part of the silent auction component of the Oakhana Summer Swizzle / two home tiki bar crawl in August, one of the auction items I contributed was a private tasting event with three Mai Tais for up to 8 people and hosted by Jeff Hall at the Dragon’s Den in the Oakland hills. Nav Singh was the high bidder and we had the event this past weekend.

What a great time, thanks to Nav and some of the Sacramento Ohana she brought along for the ride. A few quality questions about the Mai Tai’s ingredients and components and some about its key ingredient (that would be rum, folks). We also had a great vibe at Jeff’s place and some tasty food provided by Jeff. I brought the rum and the cocktail ingredients.

Auction winner Nav Singh

We had three Mai Tais:

  1. First was a Trader Vic’s Mai Tai made with either Khukri rum from Nepal or Santiago aged rum from Cuba. One of these countries has a great reputation as a rum producer, but both are unusual and have a lighter column-still production method. Either one of these produced a fine Mai Tai.

  2. Second was a Mai Tai made with Hampden Great House 2020, a cask strength flavor bomb from Jamaica. The difference between our first Mai Tai and this was greatly evident, and even with a super boozy rum the cocktail is still very approachable. This shows how different rums produce a very different Mai Tai.

  3. We ended with a Blue Mai Tai, made with high quality Giffard Blue Curacao and a rum blend featuring Charley’s JB Overproof rum that’s available only in Jamaica. I’ve done different variants of this over the years and it still impresses; people expect it to be sweet like a Blue Hawaii but the boozy Jamaican rum gives it a good balance.

Thanks again to Jeff for hosting and to Nav for the winning bid.

Additional photos by Robyn Haas and Nav Singh.

Khukri Rum Mai Tai
Hampden Mai Tai
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Farewell to The Room

Along with Palmetto, the connected Kon-Tiki Room also closed last night. The series finale was raucous thanks to cocktail specials from Santa Teresa Rum but mostly from locals and tikiphiles coming out to say goodbye. In previous visits I’d bemoaned the playing of 1980s top 40 here, but had a softer spot for lesser known New Wave material being played. Still not truly tiki but at least it was a retro subgenre. Last night it was full-on “Dark Wave” which totally fit the bill given the occasion.

The last Stargazer

“The Room,” as it began to bill itself over time, was always the less favored child, either from the more glamorous Palmetto next door or the OG Kon-Tiki a few blocks away. But over time the pop culture sensibilities of the staff made this a decidedly different destination thanks to Star Trek nights and such. Such was on hand with last night with Star Trek on TV and even one couple dressed as Mulder and Scully to pay homage to The Room’s X-Files Friday events.

There was lot of good cheer in the air as we said goodbye. Thank you to Matt and Christ for trying to do something a little different in Uptown. To Jeannie for the cocktail program including our beloved Disco Banana. And to Jeni and Tori for fab service at the bar like always. We truly wish everyone the best and hope for future success.

The last Disco Banana
DJ Carlos and Jeni
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17 Year Wray & Nephew Rum Copy

This rum recipe comes from Greg Easter and the book Advanced Mixology: A New Apporach. Easter’s family knew Trader Vic Bergerson personally and Easter claims to have sampled a bottle of the famed original Mai Tai rum, albeit a “doctored” version. Easter says that Vic would add a small amount of “Nastoyka,” an infused liqueur, to his rum bottles to give them a special flavor. Easter includes a Mai Tai recipe using this rum that he claims was close to the original.

Producing some Nastoyka for the rum blend always felt like a PITA to me, so we thank Brenda Gadow for being a mensch and doing the work to infuse rum with raisins, hibiscus, vanilla tea, and star anise. And then to combine that Nastroyka with five rums and one liqueur.

The Wray Copy is a very flavorful rum when sampled neat, quite reminiscent of the long finish and dark fruit flavors of Appleton 17 Legend (itself an attempt to recreate the original Wray & Nephew rum). At about 50% ABV, it is boozier than the original Wray but very close to Legend.

We tried this rum in our standard Mai Tai recipe, using 1 oz of lime juice ¼ oz of Demerara Syrup. To emulate the Giffard orgeat Easter calls for we used a split of Latitude 29 and Liber Orgeat. It wasn’t a bad Mai Tai but certainly felt too sweet, and the rum definitely got lost in the blend.

There’s a Mai Tai recipe in the book that varies from the standard proportions so we tried that. This goes heavier on the orange liqueur, less on lime, and no sugar besides the orgeat. This version was considerably better, and it turned out to be quite a nice Mai Tai. Not like the incredible ones made with Legend 17, but quite formidable nonetheless.

For an additional perspective, check out the Mixing Up Tiki video: Mai Tai Showdown Featuring Appleton Estate 17, Wray & Nephew 17 Clone, and Denizen Merchant Reserve

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Sci-Fi Theme Leads Major Menu Change at Oakland’s Kon-Tiki

The Kon-Tiki Oakland today is officially launching a new 5th edition of their printed cocktail menu, the first since October 2021.

I don’t know if anyone else cares about this at all, but I’m always interested when one of my favorite places updates a menu. And since I have the older menus, it is interesting to see what’s coming, going, and staying. I’ve done this each time they’ve changed menus but as you’ll see below this time was quite a bit easier. There are 22 items on this menu, including sharables and “low/zero gravity” cocktails, compared to a total 27 on the last one.

Most notable for us is the continued presence of an ultra-premium Mai Tai on the menu. We are saying goodbye to the $44 Samaroli Mai Tai which is being replaced by the $38 Captain’s Reserve Mai Tai made with Kon-Tiki’s fantastic private barrel Worthy Park Jamaica rum. I’ve had Mai Tais with this rum and it is a big improvement.

Only four cocktails are carrying over to the new menu, all of which were on the original menu when the Kon-Tiki opened in 2017. The menu’s design and the cocktail names are leaning into a Sci-Fi theme which I find… well, unexpected. I’ve loved the graphical design of the Kon-Tiki’s menus, cocktails, and website. This is something altogether different.

Be sure to try some of the new cocktails the next time you visit.

Original Menu Holdovers
The Kon-Tiki Grog
The Kon-Tiki Zombie
Uma Uma
Virgin’s Sacrifice

New Exotic Drinks
Cadet’s Grog
Captain’s Reserve Mai Tai
Cherry Coco-Naut
Cosmo Ship Yamato
Cotopaxi Caldera
Crater of Excalibia
Event Horizon
Heyerdahl Maneuver
Leviathan
Lunar Camel
Multipass
Nova’s Nexus
Pale Blue Dot
Pop Star
Princess of Mars
SR-138
Sunset of Risa
Zenith

Thanks for the memories
Blush Crush
Coca-Coconut
Donnie’s Element
Golden Gong
Golden Snitch
Haitian Hi Ball
Island Old Fashioned
Ma Kua (for 2 or 4)
Mai Tai
Martinique on Fleek
Mezcal in the Banana Stand
Plantation Stiggins Fancy Pineapple Rum on Nitro Draft
Phoenix Bowl
Ring of Fire
Rum and Spice
Rum Club Cooler
Samaroli Mai Tai
Saint Lucia’s Fox
Sea Shandy
Sea Shandy Jr.
Stormy Keone
The Kon-Tiki Spritz
Virgin Painkiller

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SF Rum Fest Presentation: The Mai Tai in Hawai’i

Today was an add-on experience connected to the San Francisco Rum Festival and Congress held at Trader Vic’s Emeryville. Rum Education for a Cause was a fundraiser for Maui and included three sessions.

Mai Tai: The Official (Unofficial) Cocktail of Hawai’i

“The Mai Tai has been coined the “national drink of Hawaii” and is often referred to as the “king of tiki drinks” according to Dine with Drinks. Join our panelists to learn more about the history of this iconic cocktail in Hawai’i and from today’s Hawaiian rum producers who are advancing drink’s cornerstone ingredient into the 21st century.”

My portion included a presentation about the history of the Mai Tai in Hawai’i including how the cocktail continues to evolve and feature the fine rums from local rum producers Kuleana Rum Works and Kō Hana Distillers. Steve Jefferson from Kuleana and Kyle Reutner from Kō Hana discussed their rums and included more details about how sugar cane came to Hawai’i and how it is used today.

Download the Presentation (PDF)

Mai Tai from Kuleana at the Rum Education for a Cause event
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The Evolution of the Mai Tai on Make and Drink YouTube

We were pleased to be the inaugural guest on Derek Cole’s Make and Drink channel on YouTube. In the video we discuss how the cocktail evolved in Hawaii and even make the original Hawaiian Mai Tai that did not include Pineapple juice. Make and Drink is a really great cocktail channel and Derek’s production values are off the chart.

The thumbnail for the video includes some “Easter Eggs” about the Mai Tai and even some forthcoming content. Stay tuned for future collaborations.

Now is also a good time to recommend subscribing to the Make and Drink Patreon, where you can support high-quality content like this as well as being able to interact with other patrons and Derek who is also producing patron-exclusive content. Check it out.