With the closing of our beloved Kon-Tiki Oakland, it is finally time to amend our list of the Top 10 Mai Tais in the World. This list is all about what’s in the glass, not the surrounding decor or atmosphere, and is based on the standard-issue Mai Tai at the venue.
In considering which Mai Tai replace it with, there were several that came to mind.
The Ultimate Mai Tai at Tiki Tom’s (Walnut Creek): I’m biased in saying it but I think they do a great job and the last time I had it there I even impressed myself by how much I loved it.
Cane & Table Mai Tai at Cane & Table (New Orleans): a rich and chewy Mai Tai with a blend of pungent rums including rich sugar cane juice distillate.
Terry’s Mai Tai at the Copper Room (Yucca Valley): a vintage bar on a dusty road next to a tiny airport in the middle of nowhere has one of the finely balanced Mai Tais? Yes, friends.
Off Menu Mai Tai at The Beachcomber (London): a really fantastic Agricole Mai Tai, speciality of the bar.
Strong Water Anaheim: consistently good featuring Jamaica and Demerara rums plus zesty lime, expertly garnished.
In making the decision, I eliminated Cane & Table due to the ever-evolving nature of their rum blend, and not being a local I can’t make a call on whether the quality is keeping up. As much as I want the overall list to expand beyond the United States, I thought the more local contenders were better, and I decided that nepotism of sorts wasn’t good for designating Tiki Tom’s either. Someday Strong Water might boot one of the existing Top 10, but I went with the Mai Tai loved even more.
Terry’s Mai Tai is the brainchild of Terry Six, former bartender/manager at The Kon-Tiki, so there’s more than a little symmetry in choosing this to replace The Kon-Tiki. The transcendent drink is made with a “secret blend of four rums” and homemade orgeat, offering rich flavors and an amazing mouthfeel that is great to the last drop. Based on Six’s pedigree, I had the highest of expectations coming into this and it topped it in every way.
I’m fine with calling this the event of the year because if something else tops it I might not survive! Thursday night was a special event at Zombie Village featuring Doc Parks and Sam Miller from the opening day staff. Sam brought his SLC Ramora Bar partner Mikey Edwards and there were DJs Woody Miller, Ship Rex, and Principal Ponder. We saw so many people, some coming from Sacramento, San Jose, and Los Angeles, plus the return of former Villager Adrián Castañeda who came from Barcelona.
Doc Parks
This was billed as the last stop on the Doc Parks Encore Tour, offering an array of cocktail specials in the upstairs Voodoo Lounge that’s only occasionally open these days. We love hanging out amongst the skulls and of course Parks’ cocktails are always on point. Return of the Doc was a creamier version of the Disco Banana and the Pink Pony Club featured botanical notes and just of hint of smoky mezcal. Both of these were truly outstanding.
Mikey and Sam
Sam and Mikey were set up downstairs with standard ZV drinks available at the entrance well. When we arrived early Mrs. Mai Tai and I did our usual order of a Coco Pandan and Disco Banana, both day one cocktails and still so good. Both of us thought the Slam Wagon was a great uplift of a Painkiller template, but the Mai Tai riff called Muxu Muxi featured espellate orgeat and while I’m familiar with orgeat I wasn’t with espellate (it is a French pepper) and so the cocktail was way too spicy for me. I did enjoy the burst of orange and fruit flavors.
DJ Ship Rex
The venue was packed all evening and the rotating DJs meant there were various style of music along the way. We saw so many industry folks including people from other local tiki bars past and present. For one night only it reminded us of the glory days of 2019 at the Village. We hope this means ZV will continue do more to create mind share and that the end of Parks’ tour means he has a regular gig coming up soon.
Disco BananaAdrián CastañedaMuxu Muxu / Slam WagonReturn of the Doc / Pink Pony Club
We rolled into The Fink in downtown Napa around 7:00 on Saturday, hoping to find a seat even though we knew it would be busy. Thankfully, we found a couple spots at the bar and had ourselves an amazing cocktail experience.
We must heap massive praise on The Fink crew, led by the namesake owner Judd Finkelstein who welcomed us, but even more notably our bartender Alyssa who’s hands never stopped moving and whipped up cocktail after cocktail. Manager Andrew Salazar was also on hand to check on orders and deliver drinks, plus another bartender and server. It was really busy as you’d expect and the staff was really moving.
OG Mai Tai
I’ve previously highlighted The Fink’s OG Mai Tai that is balanced and creamy thanks to their house-made Orgeat and rums from Jamaica and Martinique. It was really an amazing Mai Tai, the best so far this year, and the best in Napa at any price (IYKYK). I also tried the tiki classic Reverb Crash that was made with fresh white grapefruit juice that burst with flavor. The Fink has many tropical cocktails and in my opinion has the best tiki drinks between San Francisco and Portland.
Mrs. Mai Tai loves her coffee drinks and the New Orleans inspired Mocha Milk Punch made me a convert, including Bourbon, coffee liqueur, cocoa, milk, and topped with dalgona. This rich cocktail had everything you’re looking for including an incredible presentation and rich flavors. That was followed by an incredible New York Sour that features some tasty claret wine. With cocktail sections covering regions from Latin America to the Caribbean to a set of house classics, we remain impressed by the selection and execution at The Fink.
Mocha Milk Punch
Our night ended with a short tour of the upstairs Commodore’s Cabin, available for private parties up to 25 people and itself nicely appointed with great views of the stage on nights where there’s music.
Last week’s “last Appleton 17 Mai Tai” post now seems to be very ill-timed, thanks to the opportunity to try The Legend again. Mrs. Mai Tai and I landed in Napa for dinner in advance of strolling the city to check out the Lighted Art Festival. Consistent with previous visits, we had a great meal at Wilfred’s Lounge including a quite good Sesame Wonton Salad and Wilfred’s famous Pineapple Fried Rice as entrees and a really great Cheesecake with Ube Whipped Cream and toasted coconut.
We made reservations for dinner and so were seated inside rather than out on the patios out front or up on the roof, and our service was efficient and friendly. Things were a bit chilly in Napa, but the mellow mood inside was truly relaxing.
Appleton 17 Legend is top shelf
When Wilfred’s originally obtained the Appleton 17 Legend rum they would let you have a 1 oz pour for $100 but would not make a half-sized Mai Tai, something we griped about fairly loudly. Thanks in part to that pressure, Wilfred’s announced they’d offer this amazing rum in a small Mai Tai so that more people could actually try the rum that was made to recreate the Wray & Nephew 17 rum from the original Mai Tai. Once again this amazing rum shines through in a cocktail, though Wilfred’s version had a little bit too much lime and not enough orgeat. Still very good but not, you know, ultimate.
Mrs. Mai Tai loves the Maximum Aloha cocktail which is still expertly made, as was the Batten Down the Hatches with potent rums and spices. So, an overall good cocktail night at Wilfred’s.
We had a pretty good time at a romance themed Office trivia event at Dr. Funkand hosted by RiskyQuizness a couple weeks back. RiskyQuizness seems to have a regular gig on Mondays, in addition to hosting pop culture themed trivia events at bars throughout the South Bay. Mondays also coincides with Mai Tai Monday at Dr. Funk, where their excellent Mai Tai is only $8!
RiskyQuizness runs their trivia via a web app, which means they can offer both write in questions as well as multiple choice. Each team has about a minute to answer each question but you get extra points if you submit the correct answer faster. I’m of mixed mind on this format and having to do this on a device meant that one player at a table kind of needs to be doing most of the work. Questions were pretty reasonable – some hard and some easy. Some that were easy but we missed anyway. Alcohol was involved.
Trivia events start at 7:30 and run for about 90 minutes with two large rounds of questions. We didn’t place, even though this writer used to cohost an Office podcast, thanks to neither of us watching and rewatching episodes constantly. We’ll do better when it is Friends trivia and Mrs. Mai Tai will be my ringer.
In addition to the Mai Tai I got to try the Worthy Park Overproof rum which I found to be excellent. I’m looking forward to Dr. Funk’s upcoming Rum Asylum checklist, starting February 27. See you there.
Apologies in advance to those outside the Bay Area.
Act fast friends, because there is still some Appleton 17 in the wild and the price is a total steal. Get over to Kona’s Street Market in downtown San Francisco and check the back bar for the bottle. I had the pleasure of scoring a neat pour last week and this expression designed to replicate the original Mai Tai rum remains worth seeking out, so much flavor and still approachable at 49% ABV.
For some reason this is priced at just $30 for a 1½ oz pour. That is essentially the same as you’d pay if you bought the bottle at retail, so there’s basically no markup. Don’t waste time asking why when you could be heading to Kona’s right this very moment and getting a taste of this exotic elixir.
You might be tempted to try this in a Mai Tai, which is what I did during a visit to Kona’s in December. At just $40 for the cocktail it is certainly a good value for this rum. And it wasn’t half bad, but it wasn’t nearly as good as the amazing other Appleton 17 Mai Tais that I’ve had so set your expectations accordingly
There it is, Mai Tai fans, possibly your last opportunity to try this rum and even in a Mai Tai if you prefer. Let me know how it goes.
