I do still continue to love Instagram, where even the ads help me with my holiday shopping. Plus all the connecting and commenting on the things we love to share. Check out the fun at @UltimateMaiTai. So, here are the Top Nine Posts for 2023.
Appleton 17 Mai Tai with Martin Cate (497)
Appleton 17 at London event (370)
Napa Museum for Tiki Exhibition (358)
Cocktail Archaeologist Costume meme (348)
Trad’r Sam’s iconic sign (309)
Ultimate Mai Tai at Royal Tot (294)
World’s Worst Mai Tai at Make & Drink studio (268)
Tonga Room (266)
Legendary Mai Tai on Make & Drink channel (262)
So, what I’m hearing is that y’all were pretty interested in Appleton 17 Legend rum this year. Seems like you’ve chosen the correct feed for all your Mai Tai minutia.
Top Nine says I had 29,600 likes on 244 posts, an average of 121 per post, so thank you all for the likes. I’m in the “top 1% of accounts with up to 5000 followers,” so the goal next year is to be a smaller fish in a bigger pond.
The holiday season continues in downtown San Jose where two holiday cocktail pop-ups are still pulling in revelers. Both Sippin’ Santa and Miracle offer a variety of festive cocktails along with interesting and fun glassware that’s available for sale.
Sippin’ Santa at 55 South
We started at 55 South for Sippin’ Santa, the tiki-themed holiday pop-up produced with Jeff “Beachbum” Berry. The new cocktail and mug this year is Sharkey’s First Christmas, featuring vodka, aquavit, melon and walnut liqueur, lime and pineapple juices. Mrs. Mai Tai thought this was pretty good and I have to agree it was a nice twist and the mug is pretty good too. I had Sippin’ Santa cocktail that has Demerara rum, amaro, lemon, orange, and gingerbread mix – an all time favorite mug and the cocktail is always great too.
The team at 55 South did a good job with the drinks and decor again this year, though the music for our experience was a Sade playlist followed by mid-1950s rock ‘n roll hits. So, not really the holiday vibe. We arrived early and the crowd was sparse, but grew later in the evening.
55 South
Miracle on 1st is at Paper Plane across the street and continues to impress. The decor is elaborate here, and we found the service at the bar to be quite efficient and super friendly. I was driving and asked for something non-alcoholic and received a very nice juicy highball that was fantastic. Mrs. Mai Tai had the excellent Marshmallows & Unicorns, the complex cocktail with gin, several liqueurs, lemon, egg white, bitters, and cardamon. Our friends really liked their Carol Barrel and Hot Buttered Rum, two Miracle standouts. Crowds grew during our visit and there was a line when we left, so go early if you can.
Miracle on 1st at Paper Plane
Miracle has a larger cocktail menu than Sippin’ Santa and the more varied options seem offer something for everyone. Sippin’ Santa added a holiday spritz this year but we think the smaller menu is a deterrent for many potential patrons. Adding a couple more cocktails would help for 2024.
Sharkey’s First ChristmasSippin’ Santa CocktailJuicy HighballMarshmallows & Unicorns
Shipwrecked is a new bar in Davis, down the highway from Sacramento and home of the University of California. Located downtown, there’s a lot to like and some gripes that may or may not be considered nitipicky. This is a bar only, though they do mention that outside food is welcome. Pirates are a key thematic aspect to this “tiki bar,” because every new tiki bar opening this year seems to feature pirates.
There are three distinct areas inside. The entrance is a beach themed area with some tables, huts, a few very cheap tikis (including some plastic ones). You can order at the bar from here. Going down the hallway, there’s a lounge section that’s nautical themed including a nice photo op stop, giant squid arms made from metal, and some granite tiled walls. The last section is a series of booths that are nominally themed as pirate jails, plus more pirate decor including a room with artifacts. The decor is more fun than fully immersive, but is pretty nice given intended scope and audience. Music on a Sunday afternoon featured gloomy classic rock and mood music.
The cocktail menu features 30 items and has something for everyone. The Mai Tai is okay, though I didn’t really get the complex rum notes I’d have expected from the combo of Appleton Signature, Clement VSOP, OFTD, and Smith & Cross. Mrs. Mai Tai’s Banana Boat Bliss leans on coconut, pineapple ice cream, and cachaca and we thought it tasted great and was easy to drink.
For a college town bar, Shipwrecked is fairly large and I’m sure a lot of fun, though prices aren’t inexpensive. Had they simply left “tiki bar” off their name I’d give them less grief about the dearth of quality tikis, but as it stands they do need to do better in the opinion of this writer. Someone spent money on the build-out, so the plastic tikis really stand out in a bad way. Still, definitely worth visiting.
Grotto sectionMai Tai and Banana Boat BlissDitch the Plastic Tikis, pleaseFijian Mermaid
Not the most traditional Christmas cocktail, but with the new green glaze I think the Suffering Bastard Mug is a perfect vessel. In order to prepare the cocktail we need to make some decisions about the ingredients.
The Trader Vic’s Suffering Bastard is very different from Joe Scialom’s original from the World War II era, and is basically a larger and boozier Mai Tai.
This is the recipe from Trader Vic’s 1972 Bartenders Guide Revised and from 1974’s Rum Cookery and Drinkery. Noteworthy that it specifically calls for an aged Rhum Agriole. But what’s missing? The lime, for one.
Suffering Bastard (1970s) 3 oz Trader Vic’s Mai Mix 1 oz Light Puerto Rican Rum 2 oz Rhum St. James Shake with ice and garnish with spent lime shell, mint, fruit stick, and cucumber
The same books list the Mai Tai as using 2 oz each of Mai Tai Mix and Trader Vic’s Mai Tai rum, so we must assume the lime is incorporated into the Mai Tai mix. As for the blend of Orange Curacao and Orgeat, I thought I’d try the ratio used for the 1958 Mai Tai from the Trader Vic’s in Havana, 12 parts Curacao to 7 parts Orgeat, and make 2 oz of this mix to go with the 1 oz of lime. I don’t have any Rhum St. James but substituted Clement VSOP Rhum that’s also from Martinique. Plus Trader Vic’s Light Rum from Puerto Rico.
Christmas Suffering Bastard 1 oz Lime Juice ¾ oz Orgeat (Latitude 29) 1¼ oz Orange Curacao (Ferrand) 1 oz Trader Vic’s Light Rum 2 oz Rhum St. James (sub Clement) Shake with ice and garnish with spent lime shell, mint, fruit stick, and cucumber (if you have one)
This was very satisfying. You certainly get a bit of that aged and grassy taste from the Clement, but it is balanced well by the subtle sweetness of the Mai Tai mix blend. The use of the light rum softens the edges of the Martinique rhum and keep this as the boozy cocktail it was meant to be.
We ventured to downtown San Jose to check out DJ Otto von Stroheim‘s holiday tunes for “Traditional Tiki” Tuesday at Dr. Funk. The place is decked out quite nicely for the holidays and Otto’s tunes were upbeat and festive. A great set from Otto, like always.
DJ Otto
It does seem that there’s been some regression in the quality of the cocktails here, thanks in part to a great deal of turnover of the bar staff during 2023. We saw bartenders free-pouring ingredients, which might explain why the balance of my Mai Tai was just a bit off. Not terrible but more limey than in my past visits. When Dr. Funk opened in 2021 their Mai Tai rum blend was Appleton 12 and Smith & Cross, but last year Appleton 12 had supply issues and they replaced it with Denizen Merchant’s Reserve rum that is less expensive but doesn’t work as well (the Dr. Funk website still lists Appleton 12, even after a certain lifestyle blogger informed them of the error months ago). We’re hoping for better results on our next visit.
Mai Tai
The Tropical Itch we ordered was really off track. It supposedly contains Wild Turkey 101 along with Coruba and Lemon Hart 151 rums, plus Dry Curacao and “caramelized pineapple.” I couldn’t taste the bourbon at all, and there was a flavor that neither Mrs. Mai Tai or I found pleasant. Probably the caramelized pineapple, but in either case the cocktail was not good.
Tropical Itch
Thankfully, Mrs. Mai Tai found her Thai-Chi to be made well. This rich and creamy cocktail has a host of ingredients including Allspice dram, milk syrup, and falernum. Perhaps this is one of Dr. Funk’s batched cocktails.
Dr. Funk is still pretty good in downtown San Jose, but the corporate ownership isn’t doing any favors to elevate the experience for fans of the genre and the constant shuffling of crew members also does not bode well. I hope they can right the ship.
One of my favorite holiday traditions is the mug swap at Alameda’s Forbidden Island Tiki Lounge. You bring a mug that’s boxed or bagged and then when your name is called you take one from the pile. You trade in a mug maybe you don’t love and you might end up with something better, it’s just that simple. No stealing in this swap.
The event was organized and hosted by Chad Martens. This year there were three categories of mugs based on resale value, which worked well so that you don’t trade something super rare for a garbage mug.
As it turns out, Mrs Mai Tai actually picked the mug I brought 😂. I showed her the mug before we left but I forgot to show her the bag! But, we ended up trading for something else with one of the other event attendees after the picking of bags was over. It was a Christmas miracle.
FI was super packed, needless to say. So thanks to Sara Rivas for keeping up with the bar orders and making some fab cocktails, and the entire staff working well together. Fun times.
Everyone’s favorite Mai Tai inventor was born on this day in 1902. Victor Jules Bergeron had a difficult childhood, losing a leg to tuberculosis when just six year old. Early adulthood was no better until he scrapped some money together to open a small restaurant and bar at named Hinky Dinks at 65th and San Pablo avenue in Oakland in 1934.
A visit Don the Beachcomber’s convinced Bergeron to adjust the theme of his venue. The Bamboo Room at “Trader Vic at Hinky Dinks” opened as initially as an exclusive ladies’ lounge. Later, it became a co-ed destination and eventually the Trapper Lodge theme of Hinky Dinks gave way entirely to a Polynesian theme. The venue eventually got a shorter name, simply Trader Vic’s in 1938.
This photo shows Bergeron in the midst of that transition, sporting a Pith Helmet that never became his trademark and was soon forgotten. One guesses that Bergeron thought a hat would add character to his persona, as it did for Donn Beach. One also guesses that Bergeron got fed up wearing such head-ware and might have even thrown it into the trash accompanied by colorful profanity.
Bergeron’s fame soon spread as a restaurateur and cocktail developer, a celebrity chef of sorts. That fame as the Gordon Ramsay of his day was one reason he was asked to develop a cocktail menu for the Matson hotel properties in Waikiki where the Mai Tai became a viral sensation starting in 1953.
Bergeron died in 1984 at the age of 81, but today let’s remember the young man who was about to shake up the restaurant and cocktail world. Raise a glass of rum or brandy, or maybe a famous Trader Vic’s cocktail such as the Fogcutter, Eastern Sour, or a Mai Tai. Cheers and happy birthday to Trader Vic Bergeron.
