Category: Tiki Bar

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Mai Tai Day 2025

What a fabulous day in Emeryville for the annual Mai Tai Day celebration at Trader Vic’s. This year was similar in format from what they’ve been doing since 2019, a ticketed event with a tiki vendor marketplace and live music out in the parking lot, seminars and spirits tasting inside plus guest bartenders, DJs, and Trader Vic’s cocktails and food. Trader Vic’s rums were a noteworthy new entry for tasting this year.

Mrs. Mai Tai and I got things started with a wonderful Frozen Mai Tai. Out on the deck there were Mai Tais for sale but also the opportunity to make one yourself with the guidance from the Trader Vic’s bartenders. People trying this seemed to be having a lot of fun, but we just let Mika make the Original Mai Tai and the Guava Tai for Mrs. Mai Tai – both were excellent. I also tried the Spice Trader from guest bartenders The Barbary, a very allspice forward cocktail. Forbidden Island was the other guest bartending station this year and their signature Forbidden Island cocktail sold out quickly.

Seminars are always a highlight for me. I kicked things off inside a packed Lanyu Room with my presentation on the Search for the Ultimate Tai. The audience was very receptive and we thank them for bearing with the heat of the room. Slides are available if you attended or are interested. We also caught a bit of Mike Hooker‘s presentation about Holmes Cay rums including their interesting and well-reviewed new Réunion Island Rum Traditionnel. Mike even treated me to a delicious Mai Tai with this rum.

Eve Bergeron shared details of a forthcoming new Trader Vic’s cocktail book that’s being written now with a target for a release next summer. The book will feature cocktails from throughout Trader Vic’s 80+ year history including current cocktails and specialty items that are unique to each location. She also shared some details including a 1948 Trader Vic’s Oakland menu that included the Mai Tai.

Eve Bergeron

I was asked to provide the Mai Tai Toast outside and hope I did a good enough job given all the Mai Tais I’d had up to that point. It is always a pleasure to share the good word of the world’s best cocktail and Mai Tai Day is always a highlight of the year.

DJ Speakeasy Ray
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Mai Tai Day Slides – The Search for the Ultimate Mai Tai

Presentation at Mai Tai Day 2025 at Trader Vic’s Emeryville

The Search for the Ultimate Mai Tai

Join Kevin Crossman for an informative and humorous presentation describing the hunt for the ultimate Mai Tai. Topics include newly uncovered historical details, best and worst Mai Tais, and how to get the perfect Mai Tai at your local watering hole. Advice and lessons for the home bartender will be provided, including finding the perfect rum blend to impress your guests.

Mai Tai Day 2025 Slides (PDF)

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Blue Hawai-Tai at Jungle Bird Sacramento

The Jungle Bird tiki bar is celebrating Mai Tai week with some cocktail specials available now through Sunday, including our own Blue Hawai-Tai.

This cocktail leans a little sweet which is just fine since Jungle Bird will be serving this in a frozen format. They’re also using Mount Gay Eclipse as the aged rum base, another good call for this cocktail.

There are a couple of other special Mai Tais and a flight option, so folks up in California’s capital should make time to visit Jungle Bird this week.

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Mai Tai Day Seminar

We’re pleased to return to Mai Tai Day at Trader Vic’s Emeryville to present a seminar called the Search for the Ultimate Mai Tai.

This will be an informative and humorous presentation describing the hunt for the ultimate Mai Tai. Topics include newly uncovered historical details, best and worst Mai Tais, and how to get the perfect Mai Tai at your local watering hole. Advice and lessons for the home bartender will be provided, including finding the perfect rum blend to impress your guests.

Tickets for Mai Tai Day are still available and the event includes other seminars, vendors, live music and DJs, and an art show. Plus plenty of Mai Tais, making this the best day of the year.

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Lychee Luau

Your summer refresher is here. The Lychee Luau is a new cocktail at Dr. Funk that’s perfect for those hot August nights.

The drink features vodka, Wray & Nephew Jamaican rum, lychee, passionfruit, and lemon. Tell your tiki newbie friends it has Tito’s, then watch their face as they’re blown away when they taste what beautiful flavors in a cocktail can truly taste like. This is really great, but light enough on a hot day sipping cocktails on the patio at Dr Funk.

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Tiki Talk Show “Bonus Episode”

We had a great time socializing with Ryley and Ellie from the Tiki Talk Show last week at Smuggler’s Cove. After appearing on their new podcast and YouTube show earlier this year, we saw each other briefly at Tiki Oasis and then had the opportunity to meet up in San Francisco. We really love this new tiki media series which focuses on the tiki revival. The enthusiasm that the couple has for our subculture is genuine and open minded, so we wish them continued success with future interviews and endeavors.

Smuggler’s Cove is a great place to visit with other tiki people as the environment inspires conversations, as do the cocktails. Mrs. Mai Tai went for two rounds of Dr. Barca’s Fluffy Banana, light but flavorful. I was pleased to see that Smuggler’s Cove has updated the rum used in the Pampanito cocktail, one of my favorites. Switching from Pampero Aniversario, Smuggler’s Cove is now using another dark rum in Worthy Park 109 Jamaica rum but one that’s drier, more flavorful, and a little extra boozy. Which makes the Pampanito even more fantastic.

Also nice to see the water feature working again at the Cove.

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False Idol: Immersive San Diego Tiki Bar

We skipped False Idol last year but prioritized visiting this time, making a reservation on Wednesday before Tiki Oasis. The bar was super crowded, but tables are given to those with reservations which helped. We’re aways impressed by the small but immersive bar that features great music and a ton of fish floats and an elaborate number of wall carvings by local legend Bosko Hrnjak.

The cocktail menu now comes in a gigantic book, which sets a lot of tone including a fictionalized backstory for the bar but also means you have to constantly leaf through the pages to make a decision. I haven’t been happy with the Mai Tais here in the past so went with a False Idol original called the Chunky Dunk, featuring banana and sherry, served up. It was fantastic, another banana drink that I simply love. Mrs. Mai Tai had the Pearl Diver, also very good and on par with the compelling one at Strong Water Anaheim that we had a couple months back.

Besides tiki classic and False Idol originals, there’s a portion of the menu called the reserve section where cocktails are prepared with premium spirts with a price to match. Against my better judgment I ordered the Reserve Mai Tai made with aged Rhum JM and Appleton 15 rum, and it was good but not really with the $32 price tag. Every other drink I’ve ever had a False Idol has been a home run but the Mai Tai remains sort of a scratch single, not bad but not as amazing as everything else. San Diego is not a good Mai Tai town.

We had a great time seeing folks from Tiki Oasis, plus tons of non-tiki people packing the place on a Wednesday evening. False Idol is located inside Craft & Commerce with a separate host station, reservations recommended.

Chunky Dunk