Category: Recipe

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1956 Mai Tai Prep

Prep work for my Tiki Kon presentation starts with revisiting the 1956 Mai Tai recipe. This was provided by Trader Vic himself to a customer and propertied to be the recipe used at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. Definitely different than the classic 1944 recipes, but most certainly not an Island Mai Tai with pineapple juice.

Original 1956 Mai Tai recipe:
Juice of One Lime
Dash of Rock Candy Syrup
Dash of Curacao
Dash of Orgeat
1½ ounces Trader Vic’s Puerto Rican Rum
¾ ounce Myers’s Plantation Punch Rum
Stir and decorate with fresh mint

1956 Mai Tai – Adjusted for 2022
1 ounce Lime Juice
¼ ounce Rock Candy Syrup
¼ ounce Curacao
¼ ounce Orgeat
1½ ounces Lightly Aged Puerto Rican Rum
¾ ounce Hamilton 114 rum or Worthy Park 109 rum
Mix in 16 ounce tumbler glass with shaved ice. Drop half a spent lime shell in the glass. Stir and decorate with fresh mint.

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Book Club Cocktails

Mrs. Mai Tai hosted her monthly Book Club with friends and asked me to make cocktails for the group. This was the menu I came up with, intended to present some different kinds of flavors than are usually seen on mainstream cocktail menus.

  • The Pampanito: a Smuggler’s Cove recipe featuring Molasses Syrup
  • Saturn: a Gin-based cocktail with exotic cocktail sweeteners
  • Blue Hawaii: I included a little quarter ounce of Wray & Nephew Overproof to give this a little extra kick of flavor
  • Tradewinds: a great combination of coconut plus Apricot Liqueur

The cocktail that blew everyone away was the Saturn, served up. Even the attendees who said they didn’t like Gin found this delightful. I made more of these than the other cocktails combined.

I can see why people build or acquire bars for their homes; trying to make this many drinks sink-side in the kitchen is kind of a pain. But at least the results came out great.

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96 Tears by Nathan Robinson

I ran across this recipe from cocktail developer extraordinaire Nathan Robinson and thought I’d try it. It didn’t hurt to use one of my favorite rums, the unaged Clairin from Saint Benevolence. This is a wonderful cocktail.

96 TEARS
2 oz Haitian Clairin, unaged (Saint Benevolence)
¾ oz oz Orgeat
¾ oz oz Lime juice
3 dashes Angostura bitters
Recipe by Nathan Robinson, 2021

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a lime.

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Recipe: London Dry Spin

I still had more White Grapefruit Juice so I did a little riff that actually ended up tasting quite nice. This is definitely grapefruit-forward, but I think it pairs well with the gin and the hints of orange and the rich orgeat syrup. This leans tart, so if you like it sweeter I’d suggest bumping the Cointreau to ¾ oz.

London Dry Spin by Kevin Crossman
1 oz Fresh White Grapefruit Juice
¼ oz Fresh Orange Juice
¼ oz Orgeat
½ oz Cointreau
2 oz London Dry Gin (Beefeater)
Shake with ice and strain into a coupe glass

The Orgeat used was homemade from Pearl’s Hideaway and is bit on the cloudy side compared to some commercial syrups such as Latitude 29. In this case, the cloudy white cocktail made this look a bit different from Daiquris and other cocktails served up. Liber & Co. orgeat would have similar cloudy results.

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The Breezeway Cocktail

This was posted by Spike Marble on @thehulagirls Instagram and it was perfect timing as I was looking for something to use with the last of the White Grapefruit was I was gifted. They held up pretty good this month. 

This is the cocktail that Spike developed for his Spike’s Breezeway Cocktail Hour show on YouTube, which I have enjoyed every Friday for the last two years. Spike talks cocktails (always in the glass that it was served in) and tiki, sometimes with special guests. It is educational and entertaining, so check it out if you’ve somehow missed it. You must be a fan of corks to fully appreciate the show.

The Breezeway Cocktail by Spike Marble
¾ oz Lime Juice
¾ oz Orange Juice
¾ oz White Grapefruit Juice
¼ oz Demerara Syrup
¼ oz Cinnamon Syrup
¼ oz Falernum
1 tsp Ginger Syrup
1 oz Soda Water
1 oz Hamilton White Stache Rum (sub: Denizen 3)
1 oz Doctor Bird Jamaican Rum

Blend for 6 seconds with crushed ice. Pour soda water into tiki mug, then rest of the drink with ice. Garnish with sliced limes, orange wedge, Luxardo Cherries, mint, orchid, garnish.

I didn’t go extreme with the garnishes, and used my favored Hay! Straws rather than the glass one specified by Spike.

This cocktail is light and refreshing, and the mix of spicy syrups does give it an interesting twist. I don’t have the Breezeway Cocktail Hour tiki mug, so I used this nice pilsner glass from Trader Vic’s. This is a tribute to Spike who often makes vintage Trader Vic’s cocktails on the show.

Spike has a Patreon for supporters of the show, and if you’re at the $10 level you can get a cool Breezeway Cocktail Hour pin shown below.

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Shirley Temple Week

I’m not sure why it took us this long to get here, but it has been Shirley Temple week for Mrs. Mai Tai. Not a movie marathon, but several tastings of the mocktail made with Grenadine and Soda, topped with cherries. This seems to be right up her alley, having preferred blended cocktails such as the Chi-Chi and Lava Flow. But for whatever reason it never occurred to order this in the past.

Recipes vary but typically include some Grenadine and either Ginger Ale, 7-up, or Lemon-Lime Soda. Some recipes also call for little splash of Lemon or Lime Juice, which I think would be a nice addition.

As noted in the previous post, we had these at Hula’s after a night of cocktails in Paso Robles. Then, we ordered one at Forbidden Island and what came out was very, very different. Instead of bright red cherries and Rose’s Grenadine, this one was served with traditional Pomegranate Grenadine and dark cherries. This variant seemed to be popular in my Instagram story poll, winning 2-1. Knowing that many don’t love the red cherries, it would be interesting to see if Luxardo dark cherries on top of a Shirley Temple with Rose’s might be more popular.

I also ordered a Shirley Temple for Mrs. Mai Tai at SAP Center at Sharks game, and that one came out nice and sweet, but sans cherries. Bummer.

I see recipes online that refer to a Dirty Shirley, when vodka or rum is added. If dark rum is used, it is called a Shirley Temple Black, a funny homage to the actress’s married name.

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Navy Grog Grapefruit Shootout

My previous White vs. Red Grapefruit juice comparison was with a classic cocktail served up, the Old Friend. In that taste test, I preferred the sweeter Red Grapefruit. But that was a cocktail without a lot of sweeteners.

Today’s comparison is with a tiki classic, the Navy Grog. And the recipe is our own Ultimate Navy Grog that blends the historical recipes from Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic, and includes our potent Ultimate Mai Tai rum blend as one of the base spirits. This recipes includes a full two ounces of sweeteners, counterbalancing 1½ ounces of citrus.

Ultimate Navy Grog
¾ oz Lime Juice
¾ oz Grapefruit Juice
1 oz Honey mix
½ oz Pimento Dram (Hamilton)
½ oz Vanilla Syrup (BG Reynolds)
1½ oz Ultimate Mai Tai Rum
1½ oz Demerara Rum (Hamilton 86)
Shake with crushed ice. After pouring into glass, top with 2 oz of Soda.

I made two Navy Grogs and found that the Red Grapefruit version felt thin on the tongue. Meanwhile, I found that the White Grapefruit introduced a noticeably heavier body to the cocktail, and this version simply tasted better overall. So, the White Grapefruit was the clear victor in this taste test.