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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I decided to celebrate early with this fab 1991 rum from Trinidad, made at an undisclosed distillery, during a visit to Smuggler’s Cove this week. Quite a full bodied flavor.
It is truly a blessing to be able to try these super old rums at Smuggler’s Cove. Time machines in a bottle.
