The Search for the Ultimate Mai Tai
Traveling the Bay Area and beyond to find the best Mai Tai in the world! Tiki, cocktails, and adventures by Kevin Crossman
Mele Kalikimaka to me. Finally picked up a bottle of this delicious Kō Hana Kea rum from O’ahu. Savory notes common from spirits derived from fresh cane juice, but missing the heavy grassy notes you sometimes see. Kea is medium bodied and tastes great in the glass.
Kō Ho Ho.
The bottle contains a blend of rare and premium rums from the collection of Josh Miller, rum blogger at inuakena.com and all-around rum mensch.
Josh put together the blend from a bunch of open bottles he had and wasn’t likely to drink in a timely fashion. So he blended it all and made the bottles available to locals in exchange for a donation to a charity of his choosing. Since I’m local, I was totally jumped on this.
The rum blend is rich and flavorful, with a longer after-finish reminiscent of some of the heavy pot still / cask strength rums that I have tasted. Very rich and slightly leaning sweet due to the long aging for most of the included rums. And yes it for sure makes a fabulous Mai Tai as well.
Josh’s Inu A Kena blog was hugely influential in my initial deep dive into rum a few years back, and significant portions thereof still remain useful even if the blog itself has been on hiatus since 2019. Cheers!
The year’s best spirits book has arrived! Modern Caribbean Rum is an in-depth look at the production, business, and myriad rum distilleries based in the Caribbean region. The book from WonkPress comes from Cocktail Wonk/Rum Wonk Matt Pietrek and Carrie Smith, authors of the essential 2019 cocktail book Minimalist Tiki (which as a book is only “minimal” compared to this new gigantic new tome).
This book is huuuuuge. Over 800 pages and weighs more than some actual coffee tables. But you’ll be so impressed by the historical details and current status of some of our favorite rum distilleries. There are easy to read tables and pages and pages of informational but gorgeous photos.
This is really an incredible achievement for understanding and appreciating rum, our favorite distilled spirit (and should be yours!).
Modern Caribbean Rum is available from WonkPress.com and ain’t cheap until you consider the shipping costs and the value provided by such an extensive resource. And best of all, the money goes to the authors who are self-publishing and doesn’t line the pockets of corporations or billionaires.
The Rum House a small bar located off the lobby of the Edison Hotel including a street entrance. We tried the other night but it was standing room only, but the next we came in just as another couple left so we swooped onto their seats.
Indeed there are a number of excellent rums here, including a Caroni for only $70 a pour. Plus an extensive cocktail menu.
Trader Nic’s Mai Tai, named after the head bartender, features Hamilton Jamaican Pot Still Black and unaged Rhum JM, plus a tiny float of OFTD. Both rums play well together in the base. Simply fantastic!
Meanwhile, Mrs Mai Tai tried the Star F**cker with Dark rum, Mr Black, Apricot Liqueur, Grapefruit, and egg white. Also, very good.
Our bartender Troy held court, teaching some rum newbies about Overproof Jamaican rum and posing for photos with patrons. But he kept on top of our order and was totally friendly and welcoming. @1.800.troy
We really enjoyed the visit to Rum House, located on 47th right off Times Square. Check it out.
I had picked up the Appleton Hearts 1995 early this year and found it to be amazing, aged 25 years in Jamaica and 100% pot still with 1400 g/100 LAA congeners. Simply fantastic, but all the bottles have long since been sold out locally.
I went on the hunt and found a 1999 still for sale online. I’d heard it was lighter than the ’95 and it certainly is so, though 855 g/100 LAA congeners is still far higher than most rums. I’m glad I picked it up, as it does impart a little more of the traditional Appleton flavor than ’95’s flavor bomb.
But, needless to say those 585 extra congeners are put to good use in the ’95, which remains one of my favorite rums ever.
And the story ends with a bit of a surprise. I was scanning local retailers for former “daily drinker” pick Appleton 12 (impossible to believe it is in short supply, but here we are in 2022). And while searching for “Appleton” at local chain K&L Wine Merchants I found a bottle of Appleton Hearts 1995 for sale! And for a price lower than when these were new last year. So, I could not resist snapping it up. These vintage pot still Appleton rums aren’t coming back.
Perhaps no destination demonstrates the search for the ultimate Mai Tai better than The Kon-Tiki in Oakland. Their Mai Tai has always been good, but self-described constant R&D means their 2022 Mai Tai has leapfrogged into the top 10, replacing sister bar The Kon-Tiki Room.
This sweet and savory cocktail uses Super Jugoso Orgeat, rum-based orange shrubb, and a blend of rums from Guyana, Martinique, and Jamaica. The house Mai Tai is excellent at Kon-Tiki, or try one with their special Kon-Tiki Single Barrel Rum from Worthy Park.
Kon-Tiki is also the place where where a customized Mai Tai was the best we’ve ever had.
Here are the top 10 Mai Tais that you can have right now.
Mrs Mai Tai and I are going to New York City at the end of the month and expect to visit Sunken Harbor Club, home of Garret Richard’s famed Mai Tai. A possible new entry in this list, so stay tuned.
We worked hard at Ultimate Mai Tai Headquarters to come up with a great Mai Tai using Kuleana’s rum expressions. With four Kuleana rums to work with it was difficult to hone in on the right formula, but after exhaustive testing this one really stuck the landing. The cocktail has complex and fruity flavors that will remind you of the islands, but still remaining true to the original Mai Tai formula.
I wanted to use at least two Kuleana rums, especially their Hawaiian Rum Agricole that I find delightful. But that rum has such as unique taste it can overpower other rums, even Kuleana’s premium aged expression Hōkūlei. So we dialed the Rum Agricole back and added Kuleana’s lightly aged rum, Nanea.
To give the cocktail a tropical twist, we replaced the ¼ oz of rock candy syrup with liliko’i/passionfruit syrup. Because sometimes you want the flavor but not the foam.
Ultimate Kuleana Rum Mai Tai by Kevin Crossman
1 oz Lime Juice
¼ oz Passionfruit Syrup
½ oz Orgeat
½ oz Orange Curacao
½ oz Kuleana Hawaiian Agricole Rum
½ oz Kuleana Nanea Rum
1 oz Kuleana Hōkūlei Rum
Shake with crushed ice and garnish with pineapple and cherry
Products used: Small Hand Foods Passionfruit Syrup, Latitude 29 Orgeat, Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao.
If you have these rums, give this recipe and try and drop a comment with your impressions.
Interestingly, these same rums are used in the Kuleana Mai Tai at Kuleana Rum Shack. Wonder what the proportions are, and what’s in Kuleana’s “secret mix” in that Mai Tai. Hmmmmm.
The bottles were provided by Kuleana but this is not a sponsored post.