The Search for the Ultimate Mai Tai
Traveling the Bay Area and beyond to find the best Mai Tai in the world! Tiki, cocktails, and adventures by Kevin Crossman
A little twist on the usual weekday Mai Tai, using a 50/50 split with the Ultimate Mai Tai rum and Hamilton Pot Still Gold. The curaçao is a blend of DeKuyper and Clement Shrubb.
Quite tasty, a little more wild and funky than usual. Really love all the flavors coming together.
I picked up a bottle of Yellow Chartreuse in London for just £44. It has a lower ABV than Green Chartreuse and is sweeter and less herbal, but it is still unmistakably a Chartreuse.
The cocktail is Almost Famous by Laura Bishop of Navy Strength in Seattle, published in Tiki: Modern Tropical Cocktails by Shannon Mustipher (2019). It is a riff on the Naked & Famous, replacing the Mezcal with an Overproof Jamaica Rum. This easy to make and flavorful cocktail leans boozy but I really enjoyed the complex flavors of the two liqueurs and of course the backbone from the Jamaica Rum.
Almost Famous by Laura Bishop
1 oz Lime Juice
1 oz Aperol
1 oz Yellow Chartreuse
1 oz Overproof Jamaica Rum (Rum Fire)
Shake with ice and strain into a coupe
Had a great time at The Kon-Tiki Oakland on Wednesday. I’m still off dairy for the time-being so I ordered the Kon-Tiki Burger sans-cheese. Definitely still very good, but clearly not as awesome without cheese. Service tonight was really great.
Kon-Tiki is in between major menu changes, so the current menu is via a paper menu with about ⅔ of the cocktails from the last published menu. I did order the premium Golden Gong which I found to be rich and complex, consistent with previous orders.
I also ordered a Mai Tai made with Paranubes Aguardiente de Caña, a rum from Oaxaca, Mexico. This sugarcane juice-based spirit is quite flavorful and savory, not unlike some of the Clairins I’ve enjoyed from Haiti. Not grassy at all. Combined with the Kon-Tiki’s excellent base Mai Tai ingredients, this was an awesome Mai Tai.
Ranking the top Mai Tais we’ve tasted so far this year. Note that some of these include rum substitutions, indicating that calling for premium spirits often elevates the cocktail.
10. Strong Water Anaheim with Lost Voyage Rum
Made with Strong Water’s Lost Voyage Rum released in conjunction with Hamilton Rum. Bold and very flavorful.
9. Tangaroa Terrace with El Dorado 8
We really appreciate the Trader Sam’s bartenders ability to improvise with called spirits. This one featured an aged Demerara rum and was totally rich and satisfying.
8. Trailer Happiness
The best Mai Tai in London was made with Appleton 8 and Grand Marnier and was really complex with a wonderful mouthfeel and long finish.
7. Smuggler’s Cove
As per the photo, there were some drunken shenanigans at the Cove that evening. But there’s nothing frivolous about the Cove’s legendary Mai Tai.
6. Ultimate Mai Tai at Tiki Tom’s
We were honored when Tiki Tom’s put our Ultimate Mai Tai on the menu, featuring our hand-picked blend of heavy rums. They make it great there, and we pop in occasionally for “quality control” tasting.
5. Buz-Tai at Hula Hoops
The boozy Buz-Tai is a Mai Tai riff created by local impresario Buz Deadwax and has been on the menu at South San Francisco’s Hula Hoops for years. Set on fire and including a complex blend of rums plus pimento dram.
4. Dr. Funk
San Jose’s Dr. Funk is still making excellent Mai Tais. This was their standard issue and I loved it.
3. Kon Tiki with Saint Benevolence Aged Clairin
The Kon-Tiki’s standard Mai Tai is excellent, but we really loved this one made with an aged Clairin from Haiti. Savory but still with good barrel aging notes.
2. Trader Vic’s San Jose Airport
There’s no way that this airport Mai Tai should rank so high, but a second that day confirmed that it was perfectly made and balanced. Mai Tais at sunset are just fine before a flight.
1. Mai Tai with Appleton 17
Appleton created this rum replicate the Wray 17 used in the original Trader Vic’s Mai Tai. And, yes, it is spectacular in a Mai Tai. Made by Chris Dennis at an Appleton 17 event with Ferrand Dry Curacao and homemade orgeat / rich simple.
Honorable mentions: Red Dwarf, Formosa Cafe, High Roller Tiki Lounge
We were fortunate snag the last spots to attend a ticketed tasting event for the Appleton 17 Legend release at Harvey Nichols in Knightsbridge. The £50 event included a welcome Mai Tai with Appleton 8 plus tastings of Appleton 8, 12, and 21 – and the latest Appleton Hearts releases: 1993 and 2002. We also had some truffles made with Appleton rums and a lemon sorbet palette cleanser.
Appleton’s Master Blender Dr. Joy Spence led us through tastings of these rums and was joined Campari ambassador Chris Dennis to discuss Appleton’s rum line, J. Wray & Nephew heritage, and the production and release of Appleton 17 Legend – made to replicate the historical Wray 17 used in the original Trader Vic’s Mai Tai.
The approach leading us to Legend made sense, though it was a lot of rum building up (I didn’t finish my samples to keep a clearer head). The inclusion of Hearts, a single marque pot still release was quite useful. I found the 2002 to be a flavor bomb similar to the 1995, 1999, and 2003 releases I’ve tried. But the 1993 had an unusual finish best described as “minty.” The wonders of pot stills.
All of which led us to a small sample pf Appleton 17 Legend and then a taste in a Mai Tai made by Dennis. Issued at 49% ABV like the historic original, this is more than a proofed down Hearts release. The blend of four marques means this is truly unique. There is no traditional Appleton orange peel, nor overripe fruit. Instead there are hints of nutmeg and herbal spices. It is delicious nest from a glass but even better in Mai Tai where the long and lingering finish is truly sublime. Dennis made the Mai Tai with Ferrand Dry Curaçao and homemade orgeat and rich simple.
Locals were able to purchase a bottle for pickup on Monday. At $500, the rum is fab but I’d probably choose almost two Hearts bottles instead.
We left with goodie bags featuring an Appleton jigger, blue glass, and a cute bottle of Appleton 8. We thank Campari and Appleton for putting on such a great event.
Everyone said to be sure to check out Islington’s Laki Kane, so we made sure to make a reservation and brave rush hour on the Underground to get there. We arrived a few minutes early and staff saw we were dressed up in tiki attire so they let us in a couple minutes early.
Laki Kane is a tiki-leaning tropical cocktail bar that also has a good Thai food menu. There are a few tikis inside, with the music being mellow Afro beats. Staff can be summoned via the button on the table, though our sever was right on top of everything so we never had to use it. We were given welcome drinks that were absolutely fantastic and then we were off to the races.
My Mai Tai was quite assertive, using Appleton 12 and Plantation OFTD rums. I’d have liked this to be a little richer/sweeter, but it was by no means bad. I had a Purple Haze for a second round, featuring three rums including La Hechicera Columbian rum, Clément Canne Bleue, and Equiano Light rums, plus kiwi, dragon fruit, grapefruit liqueur, and orange juice. The small flowers used as a garnish were lit on fire to smoke a bit, adding to the texture. This was a really good drink.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Mai Tai had the Pinup Zombie, a formidable riff that includes Bacardi Cuatro, Plantation Isle of Fiji, Pusser’s Gunpowder proof, cherry and mountain pine liqueurs, exotic syrups, falernum liqueur, and citrus. Served flaming in a very cool pinup mug. This was a truly outstanding tropical cocktail. Her second drink was a clarified cocktail from a special menu that also was rich, complex, and delicious.
Our Thai food was outstanding. I loved the pork dumplings and we both had the Sweet and Sour plate (mine: chicken, hers: tofu). Really great combination.
Laki Kane does put many pieces together for fans seeking a tiki experience in London. Highly recommended.
We had high hopes for this bar on Stonegate in old town York England. There’s a vast menu (perhaps too vast…) with seemingly good or interesting ingredients. The space is elaborately decorated with a mysterious vibe including some cool beds to lounge on upstairs (sadly, no AC upstairs). They also sell branded gin and rum. Nightly ghost tours of the old city met outside and depart at 7:30 pm.
This place was very active on Sunday night, far more so than some other venues nearby. As such, the drinks are prepared with speed in mind.
Mrs Mai Tai’s “Amaretto in Da Ghetto” featured spiced rum, muddled blueberries, and Chambord. This should have been right up her alley but while drinkable it ended up flat and thin.
The Mai Tai on their Classic Cocktail menu is listed as “two rums, apricot brandy, lime, pineapple, almond syrup” which seemed worth trying. I asked them to sub orange liqueur for the apricot and as they were preparing it it seemed like it might turn out okay. Until the bartender poured at least three or four ounces of pineapple juice, then shaking it like his life depended on it. Hence the huge froth topping that mostly hid the float of Myers’s. Completely unbalanced.
The Evil Eye got me.
