The Evolution of the House without a Key Mai Tai at the Halekulani Hotel in Waikiki

The House without a Key restaurant’s reputation for having a great Mai Tai goes back to at least the 1990s when I first started researching Mai Tais in Hawai’i, at the time notably being a Mai Tai known to omit the pineapple juice commonly used.

During my 1999 visit I thought the drink included a touch too much lime, though others who provided reviews to our site during that period raved consistently. The look and overall makeup of this cocktail hasn’t changed at all since that time, still one of the better Mai Tais in Waikiki and made in the style of the early Hawaiian Mai Tais with equal parts of the sweeteners and the use of light and dark rums.

Note that Bacardi Select is the older name for today’s Bacardi Black rum.

Mai Tai from June 2022

2002

This recipe was included in an August 2002 article in the Honolulu Star Bulletin, where bartender Curtis Wong described the rums as being a high-quality blend and that they make at least 100 Mai Tais per night often making 40 at a time in an assembly line-like process. This is substantially similar to the current recipe, though the use of lemon juice is a curious choice.

2002 Halekulani Mai Tai
1¼ oz Lemon Juice
½ oz Orgeat
½ oz Rock Candy Syrup
½ oz Orange Curacao (Cointreau)
¾ oz Bacardi Select
¾ oz Bacardi Gold Rum
Combine ingredients over crushed ice
Float ½ oz Lemon Hart 151 Rum
Garnish with lime wheel, sugar cane stick, and vanda orchid

Mid-2000s Era

This recipe was recently included in Beachbum Berry’s Total Tiki app, attributing the date to 2006. We found references to this recipe on the Halekulani’s website throughout the 2010s. The use of the now-discontinued Bacardi 151 means you can’t truly replicate this at home, and the swap was likely due to supply constraints of Lemon Hart during that period.

Mid-2000s Halekulani Mai Tai
1¼ oz Lime Juice
⅓ oz Orgeat
⅓ oz Rock Candy Syrup
⅓ oz Orange Curacao
¾ oz Bacardi 151 Rum
¾ oz Bacardi Gold Rum
Combine ingredients over crushed ice
Float ¾ oz Bacardi Select
Garnish with lime wedge, lime wheel, sugar-cane stick, mint leaf, and vanda orchid

Mai Tai from June 2019

2020s / Current Era

First included on the Halekulani website in 2020, this version still relies on a base Bacardi rums but once again features Lemon Hart 151 for a float that provides just enough additional rummy flavor. On occasion we’ve seen that Myers’s is used when supplies of Lemon Hart are unavailable, much to the detriment to the overall character of the cocktail, but if you can get this with Lemon Hart it is really a fantastic Mai Tai.

Halekulani Mai Tai – Current
1¼ oz Lime Juice
⅓ oz Orgeat
⅓ oz Rock Candy Syrup
⅓ oz Orange Curacao (Cointreau)
¾ oz Bacardi Select/Black Rum
¾ oz Bacardi Gold Rum
Combine ingredients over crushed ice
Float ½ oz Lemon Hart 151 Rum
Garnish with lime wheel, sugar cane stick, and vanda orchid

Mai Tai from August 2023

Samson Swizzle

This cocktail from former Zombie Village bar manager Sam Miller was the featured cocktail on Make and Drink on YouTube this week. We recently saw Miller at the reunion event at Zombie Village where the Samson Swizzle was on the menu, and I really should have ordered it.

Samson Swizzle by Sam Miller
¾ oz Lime Juice
⅓ oz Cinnamon Syrup
⅓ oz Passionfruit Syrup
1 oz Real McCoy 3 / light Barbados rum
1 oz Rum Bar Gold / lightly aged Jamaican gold rum
Angostura Bitters float
“Handful” of Mint leaves
Soda water
Build over the mint, top with ice and then swizzle. Add soda and more ice to fill, then float Angostura Bitters.

I didn’t have either of the specified rums at home. I subbed with Probitas which is a blend of mostly lightly aged Barbados rum and a bit of Jamaica rum, and used Planteray Xaymaca as a sub for the Rum Bar Gold.

This is a delicious cocktail and the soda is an important component as it helps to incorporate the mint flavors throughout the cocktail. The amount of Ango would vary depending on your personal preference.

Big Top Mai Tai

I’m not letting an open bottle of BG Reynolds Circus Peanut syrup go to waste and decided to lean into a tweaked Mai Tai recipe from Jason Alexander of Devil’s Reef fame.

The recipe includes Passionfruit syrup, which I think pairs really great with the Circus Peanut (I used it in my Hurricane riff, the Hurriclown). But I dropped the amount down to a quarter ounce to focus a bit more on the traditional Mai Tai syrup, Orgeat.

Big Top Mai Tai by Jason Alexander
1½ oz Lemon Juice
¼ oz Passionfruit Syrup
½ oz Orgeat
1 oz BG Reynolds Circus Peanut Syrup
2½ oz Planteray Xaymaca Rum
Shake with crushed ice

Xaymaca’s unique funky taste really works well here, as does the lemon juice in place of traditional lime. This is a big, bold cocktail that is delicious.

Skinny Cotton Candy Pisco Sour

Mrs. Mai Tai found some zero sugar syrups and since I’m trying to cut back on carbs and sugar I thought I’d give this a try. The cotton candy syrup is quite sweet and reminiscent of the confection favorite. I thought that a simple sour format would help to highlight the sweetener and since I had lemons rather than limes I decided to use pisco rather than rum.

Skinny Cotton Candy Pisco Sour
¾ oz Lemon Juice
¾ oz Skinny Cotton Candy Syrup
1½ oz Pisco
Shake with ice and strain into a coupe

The overall flavor is pleasant but that cotton candy is quite format in this ratio, especially when paired with the mild pisco. It can take some work to really dial in the appropriate ratio for these type of syrups.

DIY Frozen Ultimate Mai Tai

The intent was to see if you could make a frozen Mai Tai, since I was told you could freeze the liquid and then give it a quick blend to reproduce frozen cocktail texture. I tried a couple different variants but never got better than middling results, though those results still might be interesting or at least a good change of pace.

The best variant was a standard Mai Tai recipe doubled for volume and with an additional three ounces of water to replicate the dilution of water. This is placed in a zip lock back and placed in the freezer overnight. Give this a light pinch or two and then pour into a glass and drink with a straw. In my case I used the standard Ultimate Mai Tai recipe that includes two ounces of rum at just over 50% ABV.

This version is totally flavorful even with the lower overall temperature, though it is a chunkier texture than your average slushie. Putting this version into a blender essentially removed most of the ice components, but the version out of the baggie wasn’t too bad.

Some of the variants I tried included adding much more water and different lower proof rums. The extra water didn’t really change the consistency in the end product, and the lower ABV rums lacked the flavor from the potent Ultimate Mai Tai rum blend of Appleton 12, Smith & Cross, Xaymaca, and OFTD.

Circus Peanut Appreciation Party

Busy weekend for me planning and executing the cocktails for a party featuring BG Reynolds Circus Peanut Syrup. I made a welcome punch and then had a menu of four cocktails made to order. This was my first time doing bartending for a party, and yes I did make a few Ultimate Mai Tais as well.

Thanks to hosts Brenda and Glen who made it really easy to work behind the bar, and helped with some of the rum and ice for the party. And thanks to Jason Alexander and Rodney Stanton for the recipes for four of the five cocktails I served alongside my Hurricane riff.

  • Welcome punch: Honey Glazed Nut Punch
  • Cocktails: Barnum & Bailey Planters Punch, Djumbo Grog, a Clown Got Us Into This, and Hurriclown

Honey Glazed Nut Punch by Jason Alexander
¾ oz Lime juice
¾ oz Grapefruit juice
¾ oz Circus Peanut Syrup
¾ oz Honey Mix
½ oz Cinnamon syrup
2 oz Demerara rum

Barnum & Bailey Planter’s Punch by Jason Alexander
1 oz Lemon juice
¾ oz Circus Peanut syrup
¼ oz Don’s Spices
1½ oz Dark Jamaican rum
½ oz Demerara 151 rum
1 Dash Angostura Bitters
1 Dash Absinthe

A Clown Got Us into This  by Rodney Stanton
1½ oz Lime Juice
⅞ oz Circus Peanut Syrup
⅛ oz Grenadine
½ oz Creme de Banana
1½ oz Kuleana Rum Works Nanea
½ oz Overproof Jamaican Rum
2 Dashes Orange Bitters

Djumbo Grog by Jason Alexander
¾ oz Lime juice
1½ oz Grapefruit juice
1 oz Circus Peanut Syrup
¼ oz Cinnamon Syrup
½ oz Falernum
1 oz Plantation 3 Star
1 oz Plantation Original Dark
1 oz Plantation OFTD

Hurriclown by Kevin Crossman
1 oz Lemon Juice
¼ oz Passionfruit Syrup
¾ oz Circus Peanut Syrup
1½ oz Dark Jamaican Rum
½ oz Overproof Demerara Rum

Apologies to our friends at Kuleana Rum Works for not holding the bottle to show the label. Rookie mistake.

BAH RUMBUG!!

Another banger from San Francisco mixologist Nathan Robinson, this is sort of a “Planters Grog” riff that includes some bold flavors and a little maple syrup to keep things warm and seasonal.

This is quite good, if you have the Liquid Alchemist Falernum like I do. If you don’t have Liquid Alchemist I’d suggest using your own Falernum at half an ounce in combination with a quarter ounce of Allspice Dram as this will more closely approximate the flavor. And if you use a little extra Maple Syrup I wouldn’t discourage you from doing so.

Bah Rumbug by Nathan Robinson
1 oz Lime Juice
1 oz Red Grapefruit Juice
¾ oz Bold Falernum (pref. Liquid Alchemist)
½ oz Maple Syrup
1½ oz Demerara Rum (pref. Hamilton 86)
1 oz Black Blended Jamaica Rum (pref. Coruba)
Shake with crushed ice and pour into tall Zombie or Pilsner glass. Garnish with mint, if you have it.

Mele Kalikimaka and Merry Christmas