One of the oldest tiki bars in the world, Portland’s Alibi Restaurant and Lounge has a lovely feel early in the day when we visited on the Tiki Kon Sunday Bar Tour. It is even nicer when vintage exotica and lounge music is played rather than the classic rock that usually plays. Karaoke is a big thing here most evenings.
The Mai Tai was okay. Definitely using some cane-juice based rum, which surprised me. Needed to be a little sweeter though. And Mrs Mai Tai’s Pina Colada was on point.
So many little details with the vintage seating and decor.
Had a great time with my presentation “The (De)Evolution of the Hawaiian Mai Tai” at Tiki Kon.
This was the first seminar of the day and everything ran pretty smoothly thanks to the fab AV and event staff (@elvis.hart, @kristin_v_s_, @kylevanderschick and team) and the excellent Tiki Kon management team of @jookygreg and @marquisdupre. Mahalo to all.
Truly appreciate the opportunity and also the audience which seemed to be very engaged taking photos of the slides and asking great questions at the end. Thank you for attending. And thanks to the Ultimate Mai Tai rooting section up front with @juliebeane@tikiwithray@dork_bot.
There is a recording and somehow we’ll make the session available, and we’re exploring additional speaking opportunities for this session that breaks several longstanding myths about the Mai Tai.
Starting to get really excited for our return to Tiki Kon next week. We had a great time in 2018-2019, and I love the venue and management of this event. We’re starting with the Thursday 4 pm private seating at Hale Pele and are also doing the Sunday home bar tour.
I’ll have a bunch of Ultimate Mai Tai stickers on hand, featuring the fab logo by B-Rex, so if you’re at Tiki Kon please come say aloha and be sure to ask for some stickers.
Swung by the Mai Tai Bar at the Royal Hawaiian and managed to grab the best seat in the house and maybe the entire beach. Ground zero for the Hawaiian Mai Tai, when Trader Vic included the cocktail on the menu in 1953. That original ‘53 was pretty close to the ‘44 and needless to say today’s RH Mai Tai is quite different. But I must say I really liked the taste, much better than the Vic’s ‘44 we had earlier in the trip. The sweet blend of flavors worked for me on this visit. And you can’t beat the view of Diamond Head.
We ended up having dinner here, including the pancakes that were perfect. Service was pretty good too, though I’m sure the waitress was simply happy to deliver one or two drinks at a time compared to the typical table full of drinks.
The Royal Hawaiian is such a charming hotel, with a few cute stores and little passageways. And somehow insulated from the hustle of nearby Kalakaua Ave.
The Royal Hawaiian Mai Tai Recipe
Royal Hawaiian Mai Tai (Classic Recipe from 1972) ½ oz Lime Juice ¼ oz Lemon Juice 1 oz Orange Juice 1 oz unsweetened Pineapple Juice ¼ oz Sugar Syrup ¼ oz Orgeat ¼ oz Orange Curacao 1 oz Demerara Rum 1 oz Dark Jamaican Rum 1 oz Light Rum
Garnish with a Pineapple finger, Sugar Cane stick, Orchid, and Mint Sprig.
Today, the Royal Hawaiian provides the “secret recipe” for their “Original” Royal Hawaiian Mai Tai, and it differs considerably from the older recipe originally published in Drinks of Hawaii. Purists will note the use of Amaretto rather than Orgeat, and a mere 1½ ounces of rum.
Royal Hawaiian Mai Tai (Modern Recipe) Build in shaker with ice: 1 oz Bacardi Rum 1 tsp Cherry Vanilla Puree ½ oz Amaretto di Saronno ½ oz Cointreau 1 oz Fresh Govinda Orange Juice 2 oz Fresh Govinda Pineapple Juice ½ oz Whaler’s Dark Rum Float
Roll the shaker, pour in a large “bucket” glass. Float with Whaler’s Dark Rum, garnish with a parasol with cherry, pineapple and lime wedge.
Learn more the Royal Hawaiian Mai Tai’s Evolution
The original Royal Hawaiian Mai Tai was very different from the two recipes shown above. Learn more about how this classic cocktail evolved.
This recipe appeared in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin on January 28, 1962 and is one example of a de-evolved Mai Tai. Though, notably, it doesn’t include any Pineapple or Orange Juice. The source is “a reasonably neutral, presumably unbiased source” according to the column, “Dining Out with the Gourmet.”
1962 Mai Tai ½ oz Fresh Lime Juice ½ tsp Sugar ½ oz Grenadine ½ oz Orgeat 1 oz Orange Curacao 1 oz Light Rum 1 oz Dark Rum Build in glass and add 2 oz crushed ice, then stir. Garnish with Pineapple and Cherry “For the hardier types, float a final dash of 151 proof rum. And stand back/”
This actually is not bad at all, with a pleasant rum-forward finish. Though for sure it doesn’t need the 151 added. I used Pomegranate-based Grenadine, so I can’t say how this would work with Rose’s. I used DeKuyper Orange Curacao, Cruzan Light Rum, and Myers’s Dark Rum, modestly priced spirits that indeed worked just fine in this.
In 1958, a syndicated news story published in newspapers nationwide provided a Mai Tai recipe that was attributed as coming from a bartender at the Royal Hawaiian.
1 oz Lemon Juice ½ oz Fresh Lime Juice ⅓ oz Rock Candy Syrup ⅓ oz Orgeat ⅓ oz Orange Curacao 1 oz Light Puerto Rican Rum (Cruzan Aged) 1 oz Dark Jamaican Rum (Hamilton Florida Rum Society blend)
Decorate the glass with a stalk of Sugar Cane, a sprig or two of Mint, and a Pineapple stick or two.
The ⅓ ounce measures for the Rock Candy, Orgeat, and Orange Curacao are most likely due to those ingredients being batched so that the bartender can more easily measure 1 ounce of sweetener.
In practice, this cocktail is significantly too tart. Most 1944 style Mai Tais feature an equal or slightly more sweeteners compared to the citrus. Adding additional sugar made this taste better to me, but didn’t taste as rummy as I like. Only using 1 oz of citrus would have been better.
The glass was a limited edition release from our friends at Skull & Crown Trading Company, the best tiki bar between San Francisco and Tokyo. We’re going to be visiting O’ahu in June and will be making a pilgrimage to Skull & Crown where we expect to have a properly balanced Mai Tai like we did back in 2019.
An important piece of cocktail journalism is launching this week with my article in the latest issue of Exotica Moderne, available today at the Tiki Caliente weekend event in Palm Springs.
The article describes how the Hawaiian Mai Tai evolved from 1953 to present day and also explodes several myths.
The Royal Hawaiian Mai Tai was born with Pineapple Juice in 1953.
Nobody knew the ingredients for a Mai Tai, so they made due with whatever they had.
Trader Vic kept the recipe for a Mai Tai secret until 1970.
All of the above are not true.
Just this week I saw two fresh articles that stated that Trader Vic himself added pineapple juice when he brought the Mai Tai to Hawaii in 1953. This is clearly not correct based on my research, and the Royal Hawaiian isn’t documented to have added pineapple juice until 1972!
So, we’ll be doing our best to get the word out about this. As a starting point, you can catch my appearance on the Pod Tiki Podcast episode from last week.
Read the Article Online
Since the article was submitted for print publication, we’ve uncovered additional details on the history of this iconic cocktail. Those added items are now included on the version of the article now available on this website:
