Traveling the Bay Area and beyond to find the best Mai Tai in the world! Tiki, cocktails, and adventures by Kevin Crossman
Some of the California Rum Fest vendors offer their rums in a cocktail format, and the best one yesterday was Mai Tai at the Plantation booth. Made with Xaymaca rum from Jamaica, this little Mai Tai tasted great.
Kuleana rum had a nice rum punch that I enjoyed along with some samples of their rum from the Big Island of Hawaii.
One of the highlights of the California Rum Fest was the rums from Saint Benevolence. Two of their expressions are Clairins from Haiti, and profits from the business are funneled back to medical, educational, and economic charities in Haiti. Saint Benevolence is currently available in nine states, Canada, and the U.K. I’m a big fan of the unaged Rum Clairin expression.
I took another pass at tasting on their new aged rum This is the same clairin that’s been available for a couple years, but aged for at least a year. This aged version does present some different tasting notes including vanilla and spice. Totally worth seeking out.
After taking 2020 off, the California Rum Fest returned to San Francisco yesterday. The seminar schedule was a little lighter than last time, but Eve Bergeron had a great presentation about the Mai Tai, including some wonderful historical photos of The Trader himself. More about this presentation in the coming days.
The variety of rums available for tasting was quite reasonable and I got to try some new ones that I’ve been wanting to try. Most notable was the Worthy Park 109, a dark Jamaican rum at higher ABV. The booth also featured a very interesting cocktail called the Park Walk from Jeanie Grant of Palmetto (nice matchbooks too). The new Worthy Park Madeira and Sherry cask editions were also available and quite good.
The entry process into the event included a check of vaccination status and ran very smoothly. Some of the rum brands had giveaways such as stickers and pins, or recipe cards and details on the rum expressions. So, it’s a great way to learn more about new brands or dive deeper into a product line.
Our newest Disney treasure.
Mrs. Mai Tai really liked this bag, which features the HippopotoMai-Tai mug as one of it’s design elements. There’s a nice pattern on the inside too. It looked very nice at the bar next to a Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Rum.
Trader Sam’s is under the Disneyland Dining reservation system, but @oldmanmerrell put out a note this week that the bar seats are NOT currently part of this. Which means that despite the app saying there were no reservations and that the “walk up list was at capacity” we can tell you that between checking in at the Tangaroa Terrace and being seated at the bar it was maybe 15 minutes at 1 pm Sunday.
Which is to say that if you go early it shouldn’t be a problem to get seated inside. We saw bar seats and a couple two top tables go unoccupied for 20 minutes or more!
We had some great cocktails starting with my Zambezi Sour with Bourbon, Grapefruit, Lme, and Falernum. Delish!
The rest were Sam’s classics to us, including the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Rum (not pictured), Piranha Pool, and (Shrunken) Zombie (Head).
We had a great time avoiding the heat, and even saw @downladdertiki (cheers!). Though the small child with healthy lungs kind of spoiled the mood. That can sometimes happen at a Disney resort.
It is hot in Anaheim, 97•. So we bailed on the parks and took showers back at the hotel. While Mrs Mai Tai took a nap I walked over to Tangaroa Terrace for a couple cocktails.
There were a couple bar seats available and I took one mostly in the shade right next to the to-go line. Very interesting to hear what people were ordering: lots of Dole Whips, with or without rum. Kudos to Skipper Joey for answering “Dark Rum” when a customer asked what kind of rum to add (Myers’s). So much better than Coconut liqueur.
I started with the Safari Swizzle, which is the Trader Sam’s version of the 151 Swizzle, made with Hamilton 151 rum. I enjoyed the mint and Ango, it’s a very nice cocktail.
Next up was a Mai Tai (ne HippopotoMai-Tai, note the emphasis on “Mai-Tai” on the menu). Regular reader will know that I detest the use of Bacardi Superior in the Mai Tai at Trader Sam’s so I asked to sub Appleton Reserve instead. It is sooooo much better with an aged Jamaican rum to compliment the Coruba Dark Jamaican rum that is normally called for. This was a fantastic Mai Tai.
Hanging out at the Tangaroa Terrace for the afternoon was quite a delight. They have some pretty good spirits here. Thank you Skipper Joey for the great cocktails.
First stop at Disneyland. Perfect timing since we got here around lunchtime. We love the stuff here including the various flavors of Dole Whip and the Bao Buns. I also tried the Pork Lumpia that was also quite nice.
Disneyland is about as crowded as it’s been this year, apparently. Lots of people coming out to see the Halloween decorations or just to get away on a long weekend, like us.
