Category: Mai Tai

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Halekulani Mai Tai for Ohana Zoom

I enjoy doing the Zoom social hours, even if I spend all day in video conferences at work. The drinks are better, that’s for sure.

The cocktail is the Halekulani Mai Tai, a unique 1944 style riff featuring a dark rum float that makes this look more like an Island Mai Tai.

House without a Key Mai Tai, Halekulani Hotel in Waikiki
1 ¼ oz Lime Juice
⅓ oz Orgeat
⅓ oz Rock Candy Syrup
⅓ oz Orange Curacao (Cointreau)
¾ oz Bacardi Select/Black Rum
¾ oz Bacardi Gold Rum
Float ½ oz Lemon Hart 151 Rum

Delicious! My favorite Mai Tai on Waikiki.

Glassware by The Kon-Tiki in Oakland

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Mai Tai Ornament from B-Rex

I love the Mai Tai design that B-Rex has used with stickers and pins, and now there’s a large holiday ornament for sale. It’s gorgeous, and even features the design from B-Rex’s current run of Mai Tai glasses (still available in white or coral). So clever!

A surefire hit for the holiday season. Go get it now at www.brianrechenmacher.com.

 

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Happy Barbados Independence Day

Mai Tai Monday celebration with a couple fine aged rums from Barbados, who became independent from the UK on this date in 1966.

The Mai Tai is made with two examples of the rum blending tradition in Barbados. No sugar or additives, just aged Rum. Real McCoy is super affordable and Mount Gay XO is a fine rum worth splurging a little bit for. I love them both.

Glassware by B-Rex

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Liber & Co. Orgeat

Orgeat month is ending with our last review, the craft brand Liber & Co.

This one came recommended by many Mai Tai fans. I’ve previously had and liked their Passion Fruit Syrup and Blood Orange Cordial, so I was really looking forward to this one. The milky Orgeat stays settled better than some craft Orgeat brands, and imparts a rich mouthfeel to the cocktail.

I made several cocktails with Liber’s Orgeat, including a Saturn and a standard recipe Mai Tai. I also made the Mai Tai according to the recipe on the label.

Liber Mai Tai
1 oz Fresh Squeezed Lime Juice
¾ oz Liber & Co. Orgeat
½ oz Orange Curacao
2 oz Rum
I used Ferrand Dry Curacao and Denizen Merchant’s Reserve.

I was surprised and still not sure why, but I liked the ¾ oz Orgeat Mai Tai better than in the standard 1944 Mai Tai recipe. While Liber leans a tad more into the marzipan direction than is my preference, I do think that Liber is a good Orgeat that I can recommend. The silky liquid does a good job standing up to the other ingredients and enhancing the cocktail.

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Liber & Co Orgeat Tasting

Greg Brady and a big idol (signed by some guy named Barry Williams) helping me evaluate Liber & Co. Orgeat. Both were a gift from Mrs Mai Tai. Don’t steal it – that’s taboo!

No full review has come out of the Ultimate Mai Tai labs yet, where technicians are working feverishly on applying rigorous tests to another craft Orgeat. Stay tuned.

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L’Orgeat

An interesting entrant to our Orgeat tastings this month is L’Orgeat, a shelf-stable almond liqueur. While Amaretto is often substituted for Orgeat syrup in Mai Tais and other cocktails, it isn’t a satisfactory substitute due to its high-ish ABV and a flavor profile that I think overpowers the orange, lime, and rum.

Enter L’Orgeat, an almond liqueur at 20% ABV that is designed to replace Orgeat syrup in cocktails. Their website recommends using ¾ oz of L’Orgeat along with 1 oz of Lime, 2 oz Jamaican Rum, and ¼ oz Curacao. I found this recipe to have an overpowering burnt chocolate taste, and it also wasn’t as sweet as I like it.

Much better was using L’Orgeat at ½ oz alongside the rest of the standard 1944 Mai Tai recipe ingredients. In this case, that nuttiness does add a hint of almonds and richness that can be missing when you use artificial Orgeat syrups like Torani. For those who like an Almond Milk lean in their Orgeat, however, this is pretty far afield from that. Still, I think many will enjoy the flavor profile of L’Orgeat.

Thanks to Sean Buckley for the L’Orgeat sample to try.