Category: Mai Tai

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Nightmare Before Christmas at Dr. Funk San Jose

Downtown San Jose’s cocktail scene is really hitting its stride, and there are tons of holiday offerings so Dr. Funk is doing another holiday pop-up to blend their tiki bar with a themed overlay. This year’s theme is Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas, including some fab decor and special menu items.

Worm’s Wort, What’s This, and Deadly Nightside

Given that this movie franchise has roots in both Halloween and Christmas, the team at Dr. Funk smartly leaned into the Christmas side for this particular pop-up and as with previous efforts the decor team create an immersive space that looks great and is a lot of fun. There are five specialty cocktails, plus a brownie and ice cream desert.

Consistent with previous Dr. Funk pop-ups I felt that these cocktails were good overall, with no stinkers in the bunch. Deadly Nightside is basically a Mai Tai with activated charcoal and it’s fine but doesn’t really hold a candle to Dr. Funk’s regionally famous Mai Tai that’s always great. But this is a nice change of pace, especially if you find the Dr. Funk’s Mai Tai to be too assertive.

By far the best of the cocktails is the Hot Buttered Rum riff called Dr. Finklestein’s Creation. This hearty and spice-forward cocktail has several overproof rums to help warm you during those cold San Jose nights, and the large portion was served in a great mug. I know the character in the movie is called “Finklestein” but one wonders if “Dr. Funklestein” would have been more appropriate.

Nightmare Before Christmas runs through December 31, reservations highly encouraged.

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Happy 8th Instagramiversary to Me

The Search for the Ultimate Mai Tai was relaunched on Instagram in December 2017, reviving the brand started way back in 1998. 2700 posts in total and 247 in the last year, chronicling experiences with cocktails, connections with people in the community, and world’s leading feed of Mai Tai minutiae.

We had some great adventures in the last 12 months. A few are chronicled in the photos including some travels with Mrs Mai Tai to far off places such as Palm Springs, Los Angeles, and San Diego. We visited SeaTac for a long weekend and even experienced a tiki bar blackout! We had memorable trips to SoCal including New Year’s Eve at Lucky Tiki and attending the Rum Curious Summit in Long Beach. Locally, I spoke at SF Rum Fest, spoke and toasted at Trader Vic’s Mai Tai Day, and I hosted Mai Tai Trivia in at Dr. Funk in San Jose. I was featured on episodes of the Make & Drink channel on YouTube, including a blind tasting of Appleton Rum Mai Tais, as well as the Tiki Talk Show podcast.

I visited 46 different tiki bars in the last year, plus several home bars including bartending a Circus Peanut party in Marin County. We returned to Europe, including Trader Vic’s in Munich, Matiki in Vienna, and Mata Hari in Zurich. The Ultimate Mai Tai remains on the menu at Tiki Tom’s, but we had to say goodbye to our beloved Kon-Tiki Oakland. Thank you to so many folks in the industry who’ve shown what true hospitality is.

So, thanks to so many fellow Mai Tai fans I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with over the last year. I appreciate your follows, likes, and comments online and in real-life, where UMT stickers are usually enthusiastically received. Here’s to another year.

Cheers!

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Mata Hari Bar Zürich is Great but Not for Everyone

One part tiki bar, one part rock and roll club, Mata Hari Bar marches to their own drummer in Gewerbeschule. We walked over and arrived right at opening on a Thursday, with deep cut Ramones, Calvin Russell, and the Stones darker themed “Paint it Black” and “Sympathy for the Devil” playing. The lounge has cushy seating with plenty of tikis and bamboo, plus some edgier elements such burlesque event posters and the skull-shaped toilets.

So, it’s a pretty good tiki bar, but only if you can hang with the music – we found it to be immersive enough and lacking classic rock or top 40 which would have truly broken the illusion.

Our bartender Mario came over to take our order and steered Mrs Mai Tai to the flaming Zombie which was a little different but still pretty good. Even better was the “Donn Beach Style” Mai Tai that I thought was great – a really chewy rum blend and balanced sweet and sour elements, and not too spicy like some Don the Beachcomber drinks can be.

On our second round, we went with a Missionary’s Downfall that had a good peach flavor but could have used a bit more mint. The namesake Mata Hari cocktail leans lighter thanks to soda and is effectively a very tasty mango-forward rum highball.

I know that tiki bars that don’t play exotica or Hawaiian music can be a turn-off for some folks, but I totally loved the vibe of Mata Hari. As long as the music is cohesive and stuff you haven’t heard a million times before, it’s okay with me as long as the other elements are in place. Those other things are done so very well at Mata Hari judging by our experience and the recommendations of so many people we heard from. Check it out in Zürich.

Zombie, Mai Tai, Missionary’s Downfall, Mata Hari
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Kon-Tiki Zürich

Kon-Tiki bar and coffeeshop was less than ten minutes from our hotel, on the eastern half of old town in Zürich in an area known as Niederdorf. The place started in the 1950s, with an opening under current management in 2017. While there are some tikis and other traditional elements, this venue has dive leanings and a rougher reputation due to raucous live music and DJ sets on some nights. We were welcomed on our visit for a couple cocktails in the late afternoon and explored the first floor, avoiding the second floor where there’s smoking/purchase of various things which we don’t cover on the blog. It’s that kind of coffeeshop.

The Mai Tai here is fairly good, a bit tart for our taste, yet still with a nice rum finish. Mrs Mai Tai tried an original cocktail called Tiki Tea that featured Skipper Rum, falernum, orgeat, and CBD iced tea. It tasted pretty nice to me though she didn’t really care for it.

Tiki Tea and Mai Tai

The nods to the famous Kon-Tiki voyage are available throughout the venue and we liked all the various event posters plastering the walls. Tiki bars come in all kinds of styles and Kon-Tiki presents as an unpretentious and grungy type.

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Great Mai Tai and Swiss Rum in Zermatt

We were looking for another bar/lounge after finding Hexenbar too full, and soon found ourselves in the lounge at Resort Hotel Alex. This large resort had an eye-catching logotype font on the exterior but even better was the design inside with several fireplaces, cushy chairs, and vintage photos of Zermatt. The interior was so relaxing and we ended up at the bar complete with chairs featuring carved wild goats and cowhide cushions.

I noticed there was a non-pineapple Mai Tai on the menu and asked what kind of rums they used. Our bartender Niklaus said it was Goslings and Havana Club 3, but since I was in the mood for a more traditional version I asked if he could make it just with Myers’s. He said yes, but the concept of using both a dark and white rum was so ingrained he didn’t just use Myers’s but split the base. Thankfully, Niklaus made an excellent choice and used Kingston 62 Jamaica rum for the white rum, and this turned out really great. A very flavorful Mai Tai in perfect balance, one of the best of 2025.

I scanned the rum list and saw Rum 1823 from Switzerland and since I’d never had Swiss rum before I gave it a shot. It’s made in Switerland from Jamaican molasses and then aged for 7 years in Bourbon barrels. Though the still type isn’t listed it seems light enough to be from a column still, though this was by no means a dud even at 40% ABV. 1823 was very nice to sip on, and I’m glad I tried it.

Mrs. Mai Tai’s cocktails were similarly of high quality. The relaxing atmosphere of the lounge at Hotel Alex was an amazing find for us and the kind of place you’d love to return to.

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Hexenbar Mai Tai

We had a nice visit to Hexenbar in Zermatt Switzerland, a witch-themed pub with a pretty nice selection of cocktails and spirits. Mrs. Mai Tai went with the Espresso Martini that was really great, and we enjoyed the witches displayed throughout the cozy venue.

The menu is provided as a book of spells, which means that the spell could be good or it could be bad. I saw they had a Mai Tai on the menu: “3 Rumsorten, Cointreau, Amaretto, Maraschino, Orangen- und Ananassaft”. 3 rums? Several liqueurs? Sounds great.

Now this is really where I should have busted out a translate app because I recognized a lot of stuff and incorrectly assumed “Orangen” was a liqueur – which actually didn’t make any sense given Cointreau already being listed. Instead these last two items were orange and pineapple juice.

So, it was one of those kind of Mai Tais. Actually not too bad in this format and the juice did taste fresh. But not the spell I was looking for.

We tried to return to Hexenbar a second night but found it to be so packed that we decided to find a different place for drinks. Nonetheless, Hexenbar was really nice and is recommended if you’re ever in Zermatt.

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Cocktails at Trader Vic’s Munich

This Vic’s location has a bad rep amongst some people for drinks that are overpriced and lacking quality, but during two visits we found the cocktails at Trader Vic’s Munich to be just as good as the stateside Vic’s we frequent and pricing to be comparable to other cocktail bars in Europe. One visit was in the bar where the bartender stoically and efficiently kept up with orders.

So, we have very positive things to say. But unfortunately we lead with some disappointment.

Menehune Juice / Mai Tai

The Mai Tai here leans heavily on aged Saint James Rhum Agricole and needs a richer pairing than the Pampero Gold that’s also included, resulting in a cocktail that’s too grassy for my liking. I asked if they had any Jamaican rum and Myers’s was the only one they had, but it would have helped as I feel Myers’s or even a Demerara rum like Pusser’s would be way better than Pampero to balance the Rhum Agricole. I did spot a bottle of Appleton 21 but the pour cost for a Mai Tai would have been €80, so I dropped that idea. Not a bad Mai Tai overall but ought to be better at this venue.

The Menehune Juice was the star of our visits, and not just because the Menehune come home with you. The floral flavors have a pleasant but mild rum flavor and this sips so well that Mrs. Mai Tai ordered this on our second visit and I was tempted to as well.

Samoan Fog Cutter

Munich Sour is the signature cocktail for this location, a variant of the Eastern Sour family of drinks. This one uses local German Brandy that adds richness to the mouthfeel, but the best part was the zingy citrus notes that were just a touch sweet. Too often, Vic’s recipes with lemon and orange lean way too tart, but the Munich Sour was anything but. This was probably the best Vic’s Sour I’ve had at any bar anywhere.

The Samoan Fog Cutter compared very well to the ones I’ve had stateside, and also balanced the lemon quite well. The sherry float is my favorite part, which means this cocktail finishes better than it starts, and the signature mug is always a treat. Finally, I tried Vic’s Itch, a good riff on the Tropical Itch that features bourbon and passionfruit.

Mrs. Mai Tai went with the Banana Dreams and Sea Dreams during our visits. Both lean sweet as constructed, though neither was too much so, and both drinks were comparable to the versions we’ve had before. The Sea Dreams wasn’t in the Seyhorse mug as pictured on the menu, our biggest complaint.

Overall, we had way more hits than misses in Munich and included a couple cocktails that were among the best we’ve had at any Trader Vic’s location.

Munich Sour
Sea Dreams
Vic’s Itch
Banana Dreams