Category: Mai Tai

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Petaluma’s Kapu Bar is a Wine Town Oasis

It has been a minute since we ventured north to Petaluma to visit their excellent tiki bar, Kapu. We really enjoyed the scene inside, including a totally fantastic music playlist that incorporated exotica (including some deep cut Don Tiki tracks), surf, 60s pop, garage, Hawaiian, and Latin. The decor remains immersive and our service was outstanding.

We went for dinner and enjoyed the food we ordered, though wish the menu was a little bit larger and had some more obvious vegetarian offerings. The Poke Bowl was very filling and can be ordered with rice, wonton chips, or both. We really liked it, as well as the Pork Lumpia that had a lot of flavor.

Being a tiki bar in a wine town, there are some cocktail nods that work well here that might turn off some purists. The presence of slushy machines could be a red flag for cocktail snobs, but Kapu’s Lava Flow was really popular during our visit. Meanwhile, the Mai Tai has plenty of flavor but since it leans a touch sweet it means it’s quite approachable. We loved the creamy Pearl Diver and spice leaning Jasper’s Punch with plenty of Jamaica rum flavor.

The staff at Kapu were super friendly and the hospitality approach was fully in view when there was a small issue with the availability of one of the menu items. They totally addressed the issue with aplomb. Kapu is a real gem and a noteworthy destination for anyone seeking a high quality tiki bar.

Poke Bowl
Pearl Diver
Mai Tai
Jasper’s Punch
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Mai Tai Monday: Hamilton Breezeway Blend Rum

Whenever I get a new bottle of rum, I always make a Mai Tai with it. It doesn’t matter if it’s expensive or cheap, or even if the rum isn’t really intended to be used for that cocktail. Sometimes you find things out about the rum when you taste in the Mai Tai format, along with the lime and sweeteners that serve to provide a foundation for the cocktail.

Such was the case with the new Hamilton Breezeway Blend, named in honor of Spike Marble’s Spike’s Breezeway Cocktail Hour channel on YouTube. Ed Hamilton put together this blend and it is similar to rums such as Probitas which blend a lighter style rum along with a funky rum from Jamaica. In this case, the base of the Breezeway Blend is Hamilton White Stache, an 87 proof white rum with distillate mostly from Trinidad but also some from Guyana and the Dominican Republic. That’s combined with a smaller proportion of Hamilton Pot Still Blonde from Jamaica, which is based on a couple Worthy Park distillates that are aged 1-2 years in New York. Blonde has a ton of flavor even at 45% ABV is my favorite Hamilton rum expression.

The Breezeway Blend is being positioned rightly so as a flavorful Daiquiri rum, where light leaning rum is expected. The Mai Tai traditionally wants to use heavier and bolder rums, but I’ll be damned if the 85 proof Breezeway Blend doesn’t make for a really fine Mai Tai. This leans lighter, of course, but there’s plenty of funky Jamaican flavor and sometimes you want something that’s just a little easier to drink.

In many ways, this reminds me of what Trader Vic did when he brought the Mai Tai to Hawai’i. That original Hawaiian Mai Tai wasn’t made with long aged Jamaica rum, but used inexpensive dark Jamaican rums such as Myers’s and combined it with a light Puerto Rican so that it would be easier for tourists to drink.

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Bali Hai Sells 3 Millionth Mai Tai (with Recipe)

Congrats to San Diego’s Bali Hai Restaurant, a longtime institution located on scenic Shelter Island. The venue’s infamous Mai Tai is known to be extraordinarily potent, advertised as not being made with any juice. It’s basically rum in a glass with little splashes of traditional Mai Tai ingredients.

The 3 millionth Mai Tai was recently sold at Bali Hai, which has a ticker inside the restaurant showing how many they’ve sold. Quite a milestone for such a noteworthy entrant in the lore of the Mai Tai.

People often ask how this is made, so we present the recipe that tastes like the real thing.

Bali Hai Mai Tai
½ oz Sweet and Sour Mix (or ¼ oz Lemon Juice and ¼ oz Simple Syrup)
¼ oz Orgeat
¼ oz Triple Sec
2½ oz Cruzan Light Rum
2½ oz Coruba Dark Jamaican Rum
Shake with ice

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Hula Hoops Tiki Passport

South San Francisco’s Hula Hoops recently introduced a tiki passport / cocktail checklist. This tiki bar and restaurant has been doing Hawaiian food and fine cocktails for over five years, with the quality of the cocktails being far better than you’d expect for a suburban location that’s more restaurant than bar. They started strong with a couple Doc Parks cocktails and the Buz-Tai from local luminary Buz Deadwax, along with cocktails that pair well with the food offering such as the Ube Martini.

The Tiki Passport is a checklist of 15 cocktails, including the aforementioned Buz-Tai and two other Mai Tais. Plus some tiki favorites and a few that lean creamy such as the Coco Banana. Once you complete all 15 you get a Hula Hoops branded King Kong mug that includes a basketball carrying Wahine that’s a nod to the venue’s logo. The mug is made by Tiki Farm and looks pretty nice as long as gorilla mugs are your thing. You can see a version of this mug in Hula Hoops’ tiki room where it was made into a lamp.

The Lilikoi Tai is pretty great and nicely balanced, if you like passionfruit cream topping on your Mai Tai. Certainly better than the famed Monkeypod Mai Tai since the topping at Hula Hoops is sweeter.

Hula Hoops seems to be doing very well with business since it has been busy every time I’ve visited the last couple years, especially for brunch on the weekends. Reservations are recommended.

Lilikoi Tai
Pineapple Express by Doc Parks
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Spike’s Breezeway Cocktail Hour Makes the Ultimate Mai Tai

We’ve been supporters of Spike Marble’s YouTube show Spike’s Breezeway Cocktail Hour ever since it debuted in 2020. Based in Orange Country, Spike is the frontman for The Hula Girls rockabilly group and a longtime member of the SoCal tiki scene. His YouTube show focuses on cocktails that are often made with a special guest in attendance, but some recent episode are shot in a travelogue style and shows Spike visiting commercial and home tiki bars.

Tonight’s episode has Spike tasting our Ultimate Mai Tai. Now that we’ve watched the episode, what were Spike’s thoughts on the Ultimate Mai Tai? Spike says this is “Complex, there are a lot of different layers dancing around. The rums aren’t hiding in this cocktail. That is a delicious Mai Tai. This is super good.”

Spike’s suggestion for an improvement was to add an orchid for a garnish, which is a great addition. Thanks to Spike for trying the Ultimate Mai Tai and having kind words to say about it.

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Mai Tai Monday at Dr. Funk

Mrs. Mai Tai and I rolled into Dr. Funk on Monday for drinks and dinner on our way to run errands elsewhere in San Jose. The Coconut Shrimp and Chicken Skewers were prepared very well but the highlight was the excellent Dr. Funk Mai Tai that’s only $8 on Mondays.

As with Dr. Funk’s Happy Hour menu, the Mai Tai is not a sub-par version even when priced at $8. It’s the standard version that uses Appleton 12 and Smith & Cross rums from Jamaica and is quite delicious. One of the best Mai Tais I’ve had so far this year and the best value by a mile.

The turnover of bartenders here seems to have stabilized and the quality of the cocktails seems to be back where they should be again. Music on Monday was peppy but still a mix of exotica, surf, and other retro genres, meaning that Dr. Funk maintains their tiki bar aesthetic and hasn’t ventured into nightclub territory.

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Mandarin Napoléon Orange Liqueur

I wasn’t familiar with this product but received as a birthday gift (thanks Mandy and Sam) so was really interesting in learning more. Mandarin Napoléon is made from macerated Sicilian mandarins, botanicals, and infused with cognac, so this is similar to the cognac-based Grand Marnier. The liqueur is issued at a robust 38% ABV, so is quite pleasant when tasting neat.

The orange flavors are a little brighter and a bit lighter on the cognac flavors than Grand Marnier, yet is far more robust than Cointreau triple sec. As such, it is a great orange liqueur to use in a Mai Tai where you want heavier body and rich flavors. It works great in this cocktail.