We’ve added a new page to the site to provide info about one of the cornerstone ingredients in a Mai Tai: Orange Curacao. We discuss what this is and also provide some brand recommendations.
Forbidden Island Excursion
Mai Tai with Foursquare 2004
Recipe: Blue Hawai-Tai
It’s like the Blue Hawaii and the Mai Tai had a baby. This is an original riff and I hope you like it.
Blue Hawai-Tai by Kevin Crossman
1 oz Lemon Juice
1 oz White Overproof Jamaican Rum
½ oz Aged White Rum
½ oz Orgeat
½ oz Simple Syrup
½ oz Blue Curacao
Combine all ingredients in a shaker with crushed ice. Shake and dump into a small snifter glass. Garnish with Mint and tropical fruit.
Recommended spirits:
- Any white Jamaican Overproof rum will do fine, including the widely available Wray & Nephew Overproof. For best results use a 100% pot-still rum such as Rum-Bar Overproof or Rum Fire.
- For the white rum we recommend something with at least some pot-still component, such as Probitas, Denizen White, Hamilton White Stache, Myers’s White, or Plantation 3 Star. If you prefer something even lighter, then a rum with at least a little age such as Cruzan is recommended.
- We recommend Giffard Blue Curacao.
Profile on Tiki with Ray Blog
Head on over to the Tiki with Ray Blog to learn more about our backstory and journey, thanks to the “Tiki Blogging” profile and interview.
Tiki Blogging #10 – The Search for The Ultimate Mai Tai (Kevin Crossman)
Ray has been a really important part of my reintroduction into the tiki scene over the past few years, starting with his blog and later his YouTube channel. Ray seems to know everyone, and they’re often featured on his blog.
In my day job I have had the opportunity to travel to the Seattle area a few times over the past few years and I’ve met up with Ray and some of the other Seattle Ohana. We have had some great adventures in the Seattle/Tacoma area!
It’s always fun when Ray rolls into town for visit. The photo below is from last year’s meetup at Forbidden Island in Alameda. There’s nobody in this world who makes me laugh as much as Ray does. It was also my pleasure to help Ray out by monitoring the camera for two Tiki with Ray Live episodes in late 2019.
Ray gave me the opportunity to do several guest blog posts on his blog, covering tiki bars in the Bay Area. And I guested on his YouTube show a couple times. So, it’s truly an honor to be featured on Ray’s blog, one of the seminal resources in the Third Wave of Tiki.
Dark Rum Mai Tai
New Site Feature: Top 5 Mai Tais
We’ve added a new page with our current list of best Mai Tais. These are Mai Tais made without any rum or ingredient substitutions (which could yield a better Mai Tai of course). If you just walk in and order the house Mai Tai, these are the best.
- Beachbum Berry’s Latitude 29
- Rumba
- House without a Key, Halekulani Hotel
- Lono
- Hale Pele