Category: Mai Tai

Posted on

Cane Tiki Room

Central California’s newest tiki bar is Cane Tiki Room, located in downtown Paso Robles. As drinking destinations go, Paso’s downtown has some great cocktail bars, plenty of craft beer, and every third storefront is wine tasting. So a tiki bar certainly is a unique offering to appeal to the locals and tourists who come to downtown to imbibe.

Mrs. Mai Tai and I arrived about ten minutes before 4:00 pm when they opened on Saturday. There was a large group ahead of us, but the line soon grew and grew. It was probably twenty deep and the place filled up fast with everyone being reminded of the 90 minute time limit. We saw several groups come in for a one-and-done cocktail, many of which had already been our drinking already. So it was that kind of clientele.

But that clientele had a pretty good experience. Cane Tiki Room is nicely appointed with some coherent and thematic art, plus straight exotica music to set the mood. There is a host station and plenty of wait staff and bartenders, too. While we didn’t partake in the food, they do feature many popular Hawaiian and Chinese favorites. There is a very healthy selection of premium rums and spirits.

We had three rounds of drinks before we left for dinner elsewhere, and found the quality of the cocktails to be quite good. There are a mix of classic stirred cocktails such as the Bumbuzzled (and Old Fashioned riff), but others with interesting ingredients such as Soju Think You Can Dance with Ginger Soju and Yuzu. I liked my Jet Pilot riff called the Space Cadet. The menu is large enough so that everyone has something to try, but not too large to be overwhelming. A skull rating supposedly helps you but I felt that some of the ratings were too low.

Everything seemed pretty damn good… except the Mai Tai made with Macadamia Nut Orgeat, Denizen White Rum, and Cihuatan 12 rum from El Salvador (not one of my favorite rums). Had a funny taste and was really not up to the same level as the rest of the cocktails.

Overall, though, Cane Tiki Room is a welcome addition and we’ll no doubt return.

Soju Think You Can Dane and Mai Tai
Kyle’s Killer Molotav Cocktail
Bumbuzzled and Space Cadet
Swizzle My Granny and El Prez
Posted on

Groovy Greg by Tiki Maniacs

Had to splurge a little on this fun mug from Tiki Maniacs and designed by Dave “Squid” Cohen. The mug comes with a surfboard and a small poster print that features an original cocktail recipe from Kelly Merrell of Trader Sam’s.

The mug celebrates the central dramatic figure of the best three part miniseries in television history. Believe it or not, it is the 50th Anniversary of this epic event – the Brady Bunch goes to Hawaii. The mug even has Greg Brady’s signature stolen tabu tiki.

The mug is really big, so large that it actually dwarfs Greg Brady himself.

Groovy Greg from Tiki Maniacs

Posted on

Ultimate Mai Tai Jamaican Rum Blend

As I’ve learned more about rum over the past few years, and tasted hundreds of them, I’ve come to the conclusion that the best rum in the world comes from Jamaica. Most of the world doesn’t know this, because Jamaican rum doesn’t have a cool region-specific name like “Scotch” or “Cachaça” or “Bourbon” to designate a spirt made in a specific locale. But the unique character of Jamaican rum has been known to bartenders and to savvy consumers for decades.

I have been less than enthused by actions of Plantation Rum’s parent company Maison Ferrand when it comes to the draft rum GI (geographical indication) in Barbados, and to a lesser extent the existing GIs for rums from Jamaica and Guyana. I enjoy many of the Plantation Rums, including the Xaymaca and OFTD expressions that are in my Ultimate Mai Tai rum blend, but I don’t love their Barbados expressions with tons of added sugar. And it is exactly the Jamaican Rum GI and other regulations that prevents any producer from adding sugar or other additives to the wonderful Jamaican pot still distillate that goes into Xaymaca. If the market was flooded by “Jamaica Rum” products with sugar and other additives, the spirit wouldn’t have the universally stellar reputation that it currently maintains. So this GI stuff is actually pretty important.

I’ve been looking for a Mai Tai rum blend that omits Plantation products, and tried to include rums from various countries. Over and over I’ve tried to approach the unique and complex flavor from the Ultimate Mai Tai blend, and tried to match the 50% ABV which that blend is famous for. None of them approached the taste I was looking for. After a year of experimentation, I’ve decided this blend is good enough to be let out to the world. And it turns out it is an entirely Jamaican blend.

Ultimate Mai Tai Jamaican Rum Blend
2 parts Appleton 12 Rare Casks (43% ABV)
2 parts Smith & Cross Traditional Jamaica Rum (57% ABV)
1 part Worthy Park 109 (54.5% ABV)

The Appleton 12 and Smith & Cross are carryovers from the Ultimate Mai Tai blend, and are widely used in the industry. The blended aged rum from Appleton tempers some of Smith & Cross’ infamous funky pot still flavors. Just the two of them together make a fabulous Mai Tai. In fact they make up the rum in the excellent Mai Tai at San Jose’s Dr. Funk Rum House and tiki bar, one of our Top 5 Mai Tais.

The inclusion of Worthy Park 109 is to add some Demerara Rum-style flavor notes, such as burnt sugar. The caramel coloring also adds to the mouthfeel of the rum blend. I found Worthy Park 109 to be similar to some circa 1950s Myers’s Planters Punch rum that I was fortunate to try. The light funk provided by 109 keeps that flavor in the rum blend, and the high ABV allows us to keep the overall blend just above 50%.

Unfortunately, the 2-2-1 ratio does not make for easy on-the-spot jigger measurements for a Mai Tai that features 2 oz / 60 ml of rum. So, we suggest you batch up a bit to give this blend a try in a Mai Tai. It compares quite favorably to the Ultimate Mai Tai blend in side-by-side comparisons.

Give it a try and let us know what you think.

Posted on

Smuggler’s Cove Mai Tai with Rum Subs

I was in the city yesterday near the Cove so popped in to see if they could top the amazing Mai Tai I had at Trader Sam’s made with Appleton Reserve and Hamilton Pot Still Blonde.

As you can see from the photo, what was pulled was the Pot Still Gold, not the Blonde. In this respect, I can’t blame the barback who retrieved the bottle because I’ve done the same thing before at home and in stores since all the Hamilton rums have the same label and in this case the Gold doesn’t look “gold” at all. It’s exactly the same color as the Blonde (if anything, the Blonde is shade darker).

Of course the Smuggler’s Cove Mai Tai was excellent, but I would say there’s something about that Hamilton Pot Still Blonde that really amplifies the Mai Tai. I hadn’t really considered that rum for a Mai Tai blend but it has a little extra oomph in the cocktail. The Gold is no slouch but seems to be missing something. The Blonde has some additional aging and no coloring.

Sunday night at the Smuggler’s Cove was quite relaxing and was easy to strike up a conversation with bartender Steven Liles who entertained us with some stories.

Posted on

imPASTA Straws

I moved past plastic straws at home quite a while ago and have felt that Hay Straws were better than paper or glass or metal. I’d tried pasta straws at Trader Vic’s and found them okay, though fatter than I prefer and definitely the kind that can break apart if left in the drink for too long.

Enter imPASTA straws (“imposter” – get it?), who provided the box for review. This retails for $9 for a box of 45 7½” straws. Quite solid. They’re definitely not easily breakable like the hay straws. And the radius for these straws is noticeable smaller than those big fat ones at I’d used previously.

The true test would be how long these last in the cocktail, so I made up a tall Margarita and outfitted it with plenty of crushed ice.

  • An hour later it was working perfectly, still able to easily stir the cocktail.

  • Two hours later it was still very solid.

  • Three and a half hours later the straw could still clang on the glass.

  • After five and a half hours there was a noticeable bend, but was still solid enough to drink through. And who’s nursing a cocktail for over five hours?!?

Gotta say, I was very impressed with imPASTA straws.

I would prefer these be closer to 8″, to work better in tall Collins/Zombie glasses. And you know I’d like to see a short 5½” version for Mai Tais and other Double Rocks cocktails. But for an initial product offering, imPASTA is on the right track.

Posted on

A Round of Mai Tais at Dr. Funk

Mai Tai Monday is from Dr. Funk, again. Honestly, I wasn’t planning to have the amazing Dr. Funk Mai Tai, but when a certain someone buys a round for the table in honor of birthday boy @vonschiltach, I’ll consider it a blessing. Mahalo!

Dr. Funk was quite busy on Saturday, as you’d expect on a weekend. But there was also a Sharks game and some temperate conditions, so the entire inside of the bar and the outside patio were all filled. There was even a private party all the way around the side the building. But, the staff at Dr. Funk were really working well and our service all evening was great and the cocktails were made perfectly. It was quite helpful that we had reservations (pro-tip!) and we also found the garage on 3rd street to be much easier to get into than the one we usually use on Market/San Pedro Square.