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
C<>H was my favorite rum from the Hampden 8 Marks Collection, so I decided to make it in a Mai Tai. With an ester level of 1300-1400 gr/hlpa there’s no doubt there’s plenty of flavor coming from the rum and it is maybe a little more approachable for some in this cocktail format.
Go big or go home, I always say.
Glassware: Vatos Who Tiki
It isn’t a Mai Tai at all, but some fine Hot Buttered Rum from Trader Vic’s. This commercial product compares favorably to the handcrafted Hot Buttered Rum kits you see for sale at craft cocktails bars during the holiday season.
Vic’s mix is jarred with sugar, butter, and spices mostly, and is $9 at BevMo where I picked it up. I like to use a little extra mix just to make it a bit more rich. Pairs well with heavier rums such as those from Jamaica or Guyana, but use your favorite. Might be a good use of a spiced rum if you have some.
This all time classic cocktail evolved over the centuries and this particular recipe is based on the one from Smuggler’s Cove. Rather just using an egg white in the cocktail, we’re using the entire egg. The result is creamy, though not as much as something like an Egg Nog that includes dairy.
The result is pretty good. I went with the traditional style and medium body of a Barbados rum, though something more flavorful would probably pair better with the rich taste of the egg.
Rum Flip
2 oz Old Brigand Barbados Rum
½ oz Demerara Syrup
1 medium egg
Dry shake for 10 secs, then add 1 cup ice and shake. Double strain and top with nutmeg.
Distilleries often have different production methods to produce disparate types of spirit expressions. Each recipe and production method that produces a different final distillate is called a mark and distilleries often have several of these. Hampden Estate in Jamaica produces eight distinct marks – most of which go back decades.
The 8 Marks Collection produced in conjunction with La Maison & Velier USA lets consumers be able to directly compare Hampden’s eight marks side by side by side. The large box contains 200ml bottles of each mark, plus a handy reference sheet for the distillery and for each mark. Noteworthy are all the precise details about wash components, fermentation time and type, chemical compounds, and more. Each is presented at 60% ABV, so needless to say flavor won’t be lacking, and with all of these being unaged you can taste them without the variability that aging in barrels can provide.
I obtained mine at a tasting event where we received the kits and were led through the details. Most of Hamdpden’s expressions are high on the ester scale, up to DOK at 1600gr/hLPA and the highest the Jamaican government allows. But all of these are funk bombs to a greater or lesser degree. Even after going through seven of these I really did feel that DOK was a different beast.
The variability of these expressions is noticeable and interesting. HLCF (the basis for Rum Fire) is probably the most complex and rich, despite being in the middle of the ester scale. More esters does not necessarily mean better, that’s for sure. In my tasting, I liked rare C<>H mark the best.
The 8 Marks collection is available in some retail locations already, with more to come soon. Price varies from around $150 and up. This isn’t a super limited release, but Hampden says this won’t be an annual release – though a version of this tasting kit with the marks aged for one year is coming in 2024.
For a more in-depth look at this collection, I encourage you watch this video from our friend Arminder.
We were able to get a sample of the Appleton Estate 17 Year Legend rum and decided to share it with our buddy Derek from the Make & Drink channel on YouTube. My experience with the rum was a little different compared to my tastings in London and at Smuggler’s Cove.
In the video we compare Appleton 17 to another rum blend designed to taste like the original, the Greg Easter Wray 17 clone.
This is a fun video, as you’ll see if you watch. The idea is to pick just three bottles of rum for your collection, so while this was a tough choice I actually came to my three basically right away. And regular viewers will not be surprised when you compare my list to the video I did almost three years ago called the 5 Bottle Rum Challenge.
The video is part of the Make & Drink channel, where Derek has been producing excellent videos including a couple collaborations with us. See the previous De-Evolution of the Mai Tai and The Recipe That Made It Famous and World’s Worst Mai Tai videos.
Myers’s Rum was part of a spirits portfolio sale a couple years ago, resulting in the iconic Jamaican rum now being part of the Sazerac conglomerate. The previous vintage was bottled in Canada where untold things were added to the bottle, the less said the better (and it’s all kind of unverifiable anyway). These were recently offered in 750ml *plastic bottles* (urgh!) and in a nice 1 liter round glass bottle ideal for use at bars.
One of the tidbits dropped at the Myers’s Rum seminar with Martin Cate earlier this month is that Myers’s is now bottled in Kentucky and those unmentionables are no longer part of the “blend.” Indeed the new bottle has a mention of Sazerac and also Kentucky on the back label, so we know this is the new blend. Plus, the iconic Myers’s flared glass bottle is back!
I wouldn’t say these strike me as wildly different, though the new blend tastes a bit heavier and there’s just a hint more of the traditional Jamaican funk in this blend. Perhaps there’s more pot still distillate now? Myers’s is still very mild and perfect for mainstream bars, but a 40% dark Jamaica rum without a bunch of sugar or additives means that it might be the best rum you’ll find at many bars worldwide. Better than those tasteless, coconut, or pirate rums, that’s for sure.
If it’s been a while, you might want to give the new Myers’s a fresh taste.