Category: Recipe

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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.

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Grapefruit Comparison

I was gifted some White Grapefruit from someone locally who has a neighbor with a tree, so I did some comparison testing with a Rudy Red.

Old Friend
¾ oz Grapefruit Juice
½ oz Campari
¼ oz Elderflower Liqueur
1½ oz Beefeater Gin
Shake with ice and strain into a coupe. Garnish with a lemon twist.
The original spec calls for St. Germain but I only have the Giffard Elderflower.

I made two of these, and found that I preferred the sweeter Red Grapefruit in the cocktail. I don’t know that I would have refused the tarter one with White Grapefruit, but the difference between the two was certainly obvious and noticeable given the relative percentage of juice in this recipe. And you know I like things a little sweeter. Overall, this was a pretty tasty cocktail either way.

Navy Grog and Zombie testing this weekend.

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Pink Pineapple

Mrs. Mai Tai ordered this pink “pinkglow” pineapple, which originated in Costa Rica. If you can get past this thing looking exactly like a side of ham, you’ll find it is a sweeter type of pineapple that is particularly tasty when cut up and eaten raw. Definitely not cheap to obtain but I thought it was worth trying at least once.

I got some juice while coring the pineapple, and while I didn’t go out of my way to “juice” the pineapple, I was able to get enough to try this out in a cocktail. I did a riff on the Blue Hawaii.

Pink Hawaii
1½ oz Pink Pineapple Juice
½ oz Lemon Juice
½ oz Simple Syrup
½ oz Cointreau
1½ oz Light Rum (Denizen 3)

Call me a sucker but I liked this version better than the traditional Blue Hawaii with yellow pineapple juice.

Pinkglow pineapples are available from Del Monte at  www.pinkglowpineapple.com and cost $40.

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Drinks of Hawaii 1st and 2nd Editions

Why two copies? For very important reasons we’ll get to.

I’ve been doing some research on the evolution of the Hawaiian Mai Tai. Contrary to popular belief, the Mai Tai did not land on the shores of O’ahu and have pineapple juice added immediately. In fact, it took into the 1960s before pineapple juice was commonly seen in published recipes. But the Mai Tai that became the “top tourist tantalizer” (as described in Honolulu newspapers) was not quite the 1944 recipe either. It more clearly resembled the recipe we covered on UltimateMaiTai.com as the 1956 Mai Tai, made with light rum as well as Jamaican rum.

When did the pineapple juice get added? We started to see this in published recipes starting in the early 1960s. The Royal Hawaiian Hotel, where the Trader Vic introduced the Mai Tai to Hawai’i, seemed to not switch over to this style until quite late – the early 1970s.

We thank Jeff “Beachbum” Berry for the reference, the recipe book Drinks of Hawaii by Paul B. Dick, originally published in 1971. Except that the 1971 edition features two Mai Tai recipes and neither is from the Royal Hawaiian. 

The first Mai Tai is the “authentic unadulterated copy of the original recipe” which is:
1 oz Light Puerto Rican Rum
1 oz Dark Jamaican Rum
½ oz Orange Curacao
½ oz Orgeat
½ oz Simple Syrup
Juice of ½ Lemon and ¼ Lime

The second recipe in the 1971 edition comes from the iconic Ilikai Hotel: The Ili Tai
1 oz “Appleton Punch” Jamaican Rum
1 oz Dark Puerto Rican Rum
¾ oz Orange Curacao
¾ oz Orgeat
1 oz Sweet & Sour
2 oz Pineapple Juice
¼ Lime

Appleton Punch rum was the successor to the Dagger line and was a dark Jamaican rum at 43% ABV.

 

Second Edition is the Holy Grail of the Modern Royal Hawaiian Mai Tai Recipe

The elusive Royal Hawaiian Mai Tai didn’t appear in the first edition of the recipe book Drinks of Hawaii, so we sought out the 2nd edition published a year later in 1972.

As with the first edition, there are two Mai Tai recipes starting with the “authentic unadulterated copy of the original recipe” shown above.

The second recipe in the 1972 edition features the Mai Tai at the Surf Room at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. This is the recipe that Beachbum Berry included in several of his books and the Total Tiki App and the first documented use of pineapple juice in the Mai Tai at the Royal Hawaiian that I could find.

Royal Hawaiian Mai Tai (1972)
1 oz Light Rum
1 oz Dark Rum
1 oz Demerara 86 Rum
¼ oz Orange Curacao
Dash* Orgeat
Dash* Rock Candy
Juice of ½ Lime
¼ oz Lemon Juice
Equal Parts Pineapple Juice and Orange Juice

* Dash in this context is equivalent to ¼ oz.

How much Pineapple Juice and Orange Juice? It doesn’t say (Beachbum Berry suggested 1 oz each). This is a very different Mai Tai with darker and more flavorful rums, to balance all the added juices. This style of Mai Tai isn’t my favorite, but they’re certainly popular on the islands.

Drinks of Hawaii is an interesting book. There are some classic Don the Beachcomber recipes including the Pearl Diver and Navy Grog, but also 70s favorites like the Harvey Wallbanger and Margarita. Era-specific cartoons are by Honolulu political cartoonist Harry Lyons.

Look for my article on the evolution of the  Hawaiian Mai Tai in the next issue of Exotica Moderne (and contemporaneously at UltimateMaiTai.com) in May.

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Blood Lapu Lapu

I tried this Chief Lapu Lapu riff with my remaining Blood Orange juice. This was far more satisfying than the Paradise Cooler, thanks to the heavier rum included. The recipe calls for Passionfruit Syrup but since I was out of that I substituted some of Pearl’s Hideaway Fancy Falernum instead. This was quite good.

Blood Lapu Lapu
1½ oz Blood Orange Juice
¾ oz Lime Juice
½ oz Simple Syrup
½ oz Falernum
¾ oz Dark Jamaican Rum (Worthy Park 109)
¾ oz Light Rum (Denizen 3)

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Paradise Cooler

I had some Blood Oranges and thought I’d try using them in some cocktail recipes that normally call for Orange Juice. First up is the Paradise Cooler, from the Total Tiki app for iOS. According to the notes from Beachbum Berry, this recipe comes from the Denver Hilton, circa 1960. I thought that this cocktail with Cherry Heering might go well with the Blood Orange juice. At least the color would be consistent.

Paradise Cooler
1 oz Orange Juice (sub blood orange)
½ oz Lime Juice
½ oz Falernum (Pearl’s homemade)
¼ oz Cherry Heering
1 oz Light Rum (Denizen 3)

This wasn’t bad, and the Falernum was a nice addition (I used Pearl’s Hideaway Fancy Falernum No. 1, made by Laura Murphy). But with only 1 oz of light rum there wasn’t a lot of character to this cocktail.

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Zombie (Trader Vic’s)

This recipe appeared in the 1947 Trader Vic’s Bartenders Guide, and shared more than a few ingredients with Don the Beachcomber’s original. It’s not as good but does go down a lot easier, while still being as boozy as you’d expect from a Zombie.

Zombie (Trader Vic’s)
1 oz Lemon Juice
1 oz Orange Juice
½ oz Grenadine
1 oz Orange Curacao (Cointreau)
1 oz Jamaican Rum (Plantation Xaymaca)
2 oz Puerto Rican Rum (Bacardi 4)
½ oz 151 Proof Demerara Rum (Hamilton 151)
1 dash Pernod
Stir in mixing glass with large ice cube, then pour over shaved ice in a tall glass.