Category: History

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Real Mai Tai Day 2018

This was the previous nomenclature used by Trader Vic’s Emeryville to designate the Mai Tai Day on August 30, to differentiate from “National Mai Tai Day” on June 30 (an unofficial cocktail holiday). Thankfully, many places are transitioning to the August date and this “real” name isn’t used anymore. Though I’m not sad to have two Mai Tai Days each year, if you know what I mean.

 

The 2018 event featured special Mai Tai glasses and DJ Otto Von Stroheim in the lounge. Practically quaint compared to the festivities since then. Similar celebrations were held at Trader Vic’s in 2016-2017, before I started doing the Mai Tai rabbit hole thing again.

See you Sunday for the 2022 Mai Tai Day event and be sure to arrive early to see my seminar on the Hawaiian Mai Tai at 2 pm.

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Mai Tai Myth: a 1944 Mai Tai Must be Made with Jamaican Rum

Leading up to Mai Tai Day (August 30), we are sharing five Mai Tai myths.

The original Mai Tai was made in 1944 by Trader Vic Bergeron with 17 year Jamaican rum from J. Wray & Nephew. Subsequent to that, the Trader Vic’s chain has used various Jamaican rums, rum blends that included Virgin Island rum, rums from Martinique, and currently are using Trader Vic’s Royal Amber rum distilled in Puerto Rico.

Nonetheless, some people think that a “1944 Mai Tai” must only include Jamaican rum.

The logic behind this seems a little twisted. The original Mai Tai had Jamaican rum, so it must only ever be made with Jamaican rum. As if today’s Myers’s or Coruba unaged blended rums with caramel color would be comparable to the original full pot-still rum aged for 17 years.

Additional perspectives indicate that the term “1944 Mai Tai” means the original recipe (thus, Jamaican rum). My perspective is that the term “1944 Mai Tai” is most typically meant to refer to a recipe featuring lime, curaçao, orgeat, sugar, and rum – in other words, NOT an Island Mai Tai. Some folks have said that this should be called a “Trader Vic’s Mai Tai” to mean this recipe using any kind of rum, and to those folks I remind them that Trader Vic’s themselves have recently had a 1944 Mai Tai on their menu using non-Jamaican rums.

If using rums made outside of Jamaica is good enough for Trader Vic’s, it should be good enough for you. The Mai Tai does not have a geographical origin, like the Ti Punch or Daiquiri, so use whatever rum is your favorite. I do love Jamaican rum, but you should use whatever rum you like. Then enjoy. Cheers.

Want to learn more? Check our website for additional historical notes and essays. Or join us in Emeryville at Trader Vic’s Mai Tai Day event on August 28 for a special seminar on the Hawaiian Mai Tai.

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Mai Tai Myth: The Mai Tai Created a Worldwide Rum Shortage

Leading up to Mai Tai Day (August 30), we are sharing five Mai Tai myths.

The original Mai Tai was made with a 17 year Jamaican rum from J. Wray & Nephew. This odd-aged release perhaps had something to do with barrels of rum sitting in warehouses during Prohibition and was available alongside Wray’s 15 and 20 year releases.

In the 1970 press release describing the origin of the Mai Tai, Trader Vic Bergeron states “The success of the Mai Tai and its acceptance soon caused the 17-year-old rum to become unavailable, so it was substituted with the same fine rum with 15 years aging.” This is where the myth originates, with people doing a shorthand to say that “rum” had a shortage due to the Mai Tai.

Firstly, Vic didn’t say that all rum ran short due to the Mai Tai, he said that one specific type of rum did. And even that is perhaps a tall-tale since Wray & Nephew certainly could have kept bottling a 17 year rum if they wanted to. There might have been a temporary gap in availability but if they could produce 15 year old rums for decades surely they could have figured out a way to keep some barrels in the warehouse for a couple additional years. But people like “round numbers” so that’s why you typically see 10, 12, 15, and 20 year old rums, but not 11, 13, and 17.

It is also unclear how many bottles Wray made of the 17 year. Perhaps Vic pulled a limited release rum?

There was not a “worldwide rum shortage” in the 1950s. It was a shortage of one specific rum that probably would have been discontinued whether or not it was used at Trader Vic’s service bar in 1944.

Want to learn more? Check our website for additional historical details. Or join us in Emeryville at Trader Vic’s Mai Tai Day event on August 28 for a special seminar on the Hawaiian Mai Tai.

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1950s-Era Hawaiian Mai Tai

When Trader Vic Bergeron included the Mai Tai on his cocktail menu for the Royal Hawaiian Hotel and Moana Hotel in 1953, he never knew the cocktail would become one of the most famous in the world. The cocktail’s exotic name surely helped get the drink ordered, but the taste is what made the tourists rave.

This style of Mai Tai was similar to the original 1944 recipe, but was adjusted to omit the long-aged rums that had been the featured spirit in the cocktail up to that point. The use of light rum in combination with a flavorful dark rum was common across all published recipes of this era, including in the recipe that Bergeron provided to a guest in a letter in 1956. This affords a lighter style to the cocktail, likely considered more refreshing and approachable for the average hotel guest. 

The dark Jamaican rum of this era was not as ester-forward as what you might find today, and funky rums wouldn’t have been a good choice for tourists. So, think of something like Coruba or Myers’s rather than Smith & Cross. The commonly seen Demerara rums you find today would be a fine substitution. Rum floats were not common during this time-period, but more than two ounces of rum was often seen. So wonder the tourists loved those “tummy warmers.”

Though the recipes of this era vary, there are some common elements. Besides the use of both light and dark rum, the sweeteners were included in equal parts. Before pineapple and orange juice were added to the Hawaiian Mai Tai in the 1960s, we did see that citrus juice was used in healthy amounts. Lime was common, sometimes used in combination with lemon juice.

Looking at the recipes and how they varied, we taste tested some variants and came up with a generic version that is both representative and also easy to prepare. Not too boozy, not too tart. Just right.

1950s-Era Hawaiian Mai Tai (Generic)
1 oz Lime Juice
⅓ oz Orgeat
⅓ oz Rock Candy Syrup
⅓ oz Orange Curacao
1½ oz Light Rum
1½ oz Dark Jamaican Rum or Demerara Rum

Shake with crushed ice and pour into a double-rocks glass, topping with more crushed ice. Garnish with mint or orchid, and either a pineapple spear or a speared pineapple chunk with a cherry.

The Halekulani Hotel still makes a Mai Tai that’s similar to this recipe, though they do add  a ½ oz float of flavorful Lemon Hart 151 Demerara Rum.

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Overgrown Again at 65th and San Pablo

This is the lot in Oakland where the original Trader Vic’s location stood from 1934 until it was closed in 1972 when Emeryville location opened a couple miles away. I’m not sure when the building was taken down. Literally ground zero for the Mai Tai, invented here in 1944.

From time to time I like to visit and see what the current state is, and notably the lot is now completely overgrown! Compare the photos from 2021 and 2020 to see what this could look like, and to 2017 when it was also overgrown.

You’ll note that one of the two palm trees that framed the entrance to Trader Vic’s is still standing and even has some green fronds. The other one was cut down in 2019 to a 4 foot stump. That stump later disappeared and supposedly was carved into a tiki by Notch Gonzalez. At least according to the “I am Tiki, from Trader Vic’s” page on Facebook. Check it out for even more historical details.

Getting back to the lot, I noticed the “lot for sale” signs are no longer present. Maybe someone bought it. Maybe someone gave up trying.

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Mai Tai Myth: Trader Vic Kept the Recipe a Secret

Leading up to Mai Tai Day (August 30), we are sharing five Mai Tai myths.

While there was a great deal of secrecy around cocktail recipes at Don the Beachcomber locations, there was a different practice with Trader Vic’s. While the original 1944 Mai Tai recipe wasn’t published until the 1972 Bartenders Guide Revised, it also wasn’t a trade secret known only to Trader Vic. He had already published many of his Trader Vic’s recipes in the 1947 Bartender’s Guide.

A customer wrote to Bergeron in 1956 requesting the recipe for the Royal Hawaiian Mai Tai and Trader Vic himself signed the letter sent back to the customer. We know because letter went up for auction in 2010. This remains the earliest documented Hawaiian Mai Tai recipe and is similar to the original 1944 Mai Tai.

This recipe and others like it were published in newspaper articles and books, but Trader Vic’s didn’t sue or publicly complain about the recipes being shared. It was only when the Sun-Vac corp tried to copyright the Mai Tai for their commercial Mai Tai mix that lawyers got involved. Vic won the out of court settlement.

Want to learn more? Check our essay The (De)Evolution of the Hawaiian Mai Tai, or view the article in Issue 15 of Exotica Modernemagazine. Or join us at Trader Vic’s Mai Tai Day event on August 28 for a special seminar on the Hawaiian Mai Tai.

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Mai Tai Myth: Nobody knew the Mai Tai Ingredients Until 1970

Leading up to Mai Tai Day (August 30), we are sharing five Mai Tai myths.

Trader Vic Bergeron issued a press release in 1970 describing how he original developed the Mai Tai and he also included the original recipe. During this time period and continuing to present day, Mai Tais are made with non-original ingredients such as grenadine, orange juice, and pineapple juice, so we’ve seen speculation that this means that body knew what was actually in a Mai Tai. The most frequent rationale goes something like “nobody knew what was in a Mai Tai, so they made due with what they had.”

Nonetheless, there are numerous 1950s-1960s published recipes in newspapers and books such as the popular Esquire Party Book (1965) that provided Mai Tai recipes featuring the original ingredients: lime, rock candy syrup, orgeat, orange curaçao, and rum. This isn’t like the Zombie where nobody knew about Don’s Mix or even what was in it.

The proportions of those published recipes differed from the original 1944 recipe, in large part due to Trader Vic’s own tweak of the recipe that he provided to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in 1953. We’ll have more about that recipe in our next post. But the constant use of the obscure orgeat in these recipes is reason enough to blow the myth that nobody knew the ingredients of a Mai Tai.

Want to learn more? Check our essay The (De)Evolution of the Hawaiian Mai Tai, or view the article in Issue 15 of Exotica Moderne magazine. Or join us at Trader Vic’s Mai Tai Day event on August 28 for a special seminar on the Hawaiian Mai Tai.