Category: Mai Tai

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Mai Tai at Dinah’s Poolside Restaurant

I grew up a half mile from Dinah’s Hotel in Palo Alto but have never stayed or eaten on the hotel property. There was a Trader Vic’s adjacent to the hotel from 2001-2012 that I visited several times but during these years I was not a tiki bar regular. The Vic’s was owned by Dinah’s hotel owner as a franchise, and fit in well with the oceanic art that is pervasive on the grounds at Dinah’s. There’s even a remnant from Trader Vic himself (see photo, bottom left).

There’s a “Trader Vic’s Mai Tai” on the menu at Dinah’s Poolside Restaurant, so I decided to check it out over lunch. “Rum, dark rum, orange curaçao, lime juice” is the description and it does seem like maybe there’s no orgeat. But as Mai Tais go, this one wasn’t too bad. My Wagyu Burger was quite tasty.

The grounds are filled with lush feature, ponds, statues, and artifacts from Papua New Guinea, Polynesia, and Africa. The neon sign was something I remember seeing as we drove by when I was a kid.

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Reader Request: Custom Mai Tai Blend

We received an email from reader Andrew Furber:

Hi Kevin, love your website/blog as well as all things tiki like yourself. Need help blending the perfect Mai Tai working with these current bottles on my home bar:

Appleton 12yr
Clement VSOP
Wray & Nephew
Plantation OFTD
Plantation Stiggins Fancy
El Dorado 5yr
Cruzan Single Barrel 5yr
Goslings Black

I normally do 50/50 Appleton and Clement blend (1 oz each) but wanted to get your thoughts. I recently discovered a nearby liquor selling Doctor Bird so I may pick up a bottle of that soon too.

I asked Andrew to rank some common rum styles in order of preference, and here was his list:

1. Jamaican rum (funky)
2. Jamaican rum (blended)
3. Rhum Agricole
4. Barbados rum
5. Light rum

Thanks, Andrew, that helps. If you like it funky you’ll want to use the Wray and the Clement.

I’ll give you a sort of simple version and a slightly more complicated and boozier option. You want a good backbone of aged rum, hence the high percentage of Appleton 12 in both options. You really can’t go wrong with Appleton 12 in a Mai Tai.

Simple version:
1 oz Appleton 12
½ oz Clement VSOP
½ oz Wray & Nephew Overproof

Boozier Blend:
¾ oz Appleton 12
½ oz Clement VSOP
½ oz Wray & Nephew Overproof
¼ oz Plantation OFTD

And, yes, we think you’ll love Doctor Bird and would be a good sub for the Wray in the above recipes.

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Rum Subs in a Mai Tai

Had a very nice Mai Tai at Dr. Funk in San Jose with just Appleton 12 Jamaican Rum. This produced a cocktail that was less boozy and less funky than Dr. Funk’s standard Mai Tai that is made with Appleton 12 and higher proof Smith & Cross Jamaican rum. I’m often a big fan of Mai Tais made just with Appleton 12, though the one with Smith & Cross is better at Dr. Funk.

Most good bars will allow customers to try cocktails with a different, name-called spirit when requested by the customer (always politely, of course). We usually do this in a Mai Tai, but for rums a Daiquiri is also a good option. This can be a great way to discover new rums, especially if you’re not keen on drinking them neat. Dr. Funk has an expanding rum list (which has grown so large it’s no longer listed on the menu), so I’m looking forward to exploring their selection.

Speaking of Dr. Funk, we’re having the monthly 1st Sunday Ohana meet-up starting when they open at 4:00 and ending … later. I know many of the local folks will be attending the Brunch and Fashion Show at Trader Vic’s that same day but try to join us if you can or if you’re skipping Vic’s.

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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
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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

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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.