Mrs. Mai Tai found some zero sugar syrups and since I’m trying to cut back on carbs and sugar I thought I’d give this a try. The cotton candy syrup is quite sweet and reminiscent of the confection favorite. I thought that a simple sour format would help to highlight the sweetener and since I had lemons rather than limes I decided to use pisco rather than rum.
Skinny Cotton Candy Pisco Sour ¾ oz Lemon Juice ¾ oz Skinny Cotton Candy Syrup 1½ oz Pisco Shake with ice and strain into a coupe
The overall flavor is pleasant but that cotton candy is quite format in this ratio, especially when paired with the mild pisco. It can take some work to really dial in the appropriate ratio for these type of syrups.
The intent was to see if you could make a frozen Mai Tai, since I was told you could freeze the liquid and then give it a quick blend to reproduce frozen cocktail texture. I tried a couple different variants but never got better than middling results, though those results still might be interesting or at least a good change of pace.
The best variant was a standard Mai Tai recipe doubled for volume and with an additional three ounces of water to replicate the dilution of water. This is placed in a zip lock back and placed in the freezer overnight. Give this a light pinch or two and then pour into a glass and drink with a straw. In my case I used the standard Ultimate Mai Tai recipe that includes two ounces of rum at just over 50% ABV.
This version is totally flavorful even with the lower overall temperature, though it is a chunkier texture than your average slushie. Putting this version into a blender essentially removed most of the ice components, but the version out of the baggie wasn’t too bad.
Some of the variants I tried included adding much more water and different lower proof rums. The extra water didn’t really change the consistency in the end product, and the lower ABV rums lacked the flavor from the potent Ultimate Mai Tai rum blend of Appleton 12, Smith & Cross, Xaymaca, and OFTD.
Busy weekend for me planning and executing the cocktails for a party featuring BG Reynolds Circus Peanut Syrup. I made a welcome punch and then had a menu of four cocktails made to order. This was my first time doing bartending for a party, and yes I did make a few Ultimate Mai Tais as well.
Thanks to hosts Brenda and Glen who made it really easy to work behind the bar, and helped with some of the rum and ice for the party. And thanks to Jason Alexander and Rodney Stanton for the recipes for four of the five cocktails I served alongside my Hurricane riff.
Welcome punch: Honey Glazed Nut Punch
Cocktails: Barnum & Bailey Planters Punch, Djumbo Grog, a Clown Got Us Into This, and Hurriclown
Honey Glazed Nut Punch by Jason Alexander ¾ oz Lime juice ¾ oz Grapefruit juice ¾ oz Circus Peanut Syrup ¾ oz Honey Mix ½ oz Cinnamon syrup 2 oz Demerara rum
Barnum & Bailey Planter’s Punch by Jason Alexander 1 oz Lemon juice ¾ oz Circus Peanut syrup ¼ oz Don’s Spices 1½ oz Dark Jamaican rum ½ oz Demerara 151 rum 1 Dash Angostura Bitters 1 Dash Absinthe
A Clown Got Us into This by Rodney Stanton 1½ oz Lime Juice ⅞ oz Circus Peanut Syrup ⅛ oz Grenadine ½ oz Creme de Banana 1½ oz Kuleana Rum Works Nanea ½ oz Overproof Jamaican Rum 2 Dashes Orange Bitters
Djumbo Grog by Jason Alexander ¾ oz Lime juice 1½ oz Grapefruit juice 1 oz Circus Peanut Syrup ¼ oz Cinnamon Syrup ½ oz Falernum 1 oz Plantation 3 Star 1 oz Plantation Original Dark 1 oz Plantation OFTD
Hurriclown by Kevin Crossman 1 oz Lemon Juice ¼ oz Passionfruit Syrup ¾ oz Circus Peanut Syrup 1½ oz Dark Jamaican Rum ½ oz Overproof Demerara Rum
Apologies to our friends at Kuleana Rum Works for not holding the bottle to show the label. Rookie mistake.
The cocktail shows that this isn’t our usual haunt, but we had a great time doing the mid-week suburban drinks and golf thing in downtown Sunnyvale. Tipsy Putt has a nine-hole traditional mini golf setup, plus a nine-hole 1-2 Putt tabletop format. It’s all indoors and there is a large selection of beer and cocktails on tap, plus pretty good bar food too. There are several Tipsy Putt locations in Northern California and there are leagues and trivia events as well.
The On the Green cocktail seemed appropriate and it was nicely matching my ball, too. It contains Midori, of course, plus vodka and lemonade and turn out to be not too bad and certainly helped me get into the mood. Thanks to Michael and Holly for invite, Tipsy Putt was a lot of fun.
Yes, I know that we’re not far into 2025 but I wanted to acknowledge the excellent Mai Tai I had at Smuggler’s Cove last weekend and sort of put the stake in the ground as the gold standard for mainstream cocktail bar Mai Tais. Can other bars top it? Possibly, but the vast majority won’t even come close.
And Smuggler’s didn’t too shabby with the other cocktails in our order, all so well prepared and balanced just like we always experience there. A lot of places pay lip service to “craft cocktails” but few provide consistent excellence like the Cove. Kudos to the staff for continuing the tradition.
There was a nice crowd there at opening on Sunday, but not so many that you couldn’t find a seat to relax. I was also able to pick up the fabulous 15th Anniversary Mai Tai glass featuring eight colors and a really great design. The last thing I need is another Mai Tai glass but I have to salute owners Martin and Rebecca Cate, they really do have great taste and that fab design is a testament.
We had another great visit to Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar at the Disneyland Hotel on our recent trip, arriving in the mid-evening on a Sunday during the holiday week between Christmas and New Year’s. Despite being such as busy weekend at the resort, we were paged and seated at the bar within just 20 minutes even without a reservation.
The cozy confines of this bar feel like home, thanks in part to the Skippers who recognize regulars or even irregular vacationers with a greeting. Such was the case for us again this time as Skipper Melissa said hello and took our order. For many years Mrs Mai Tai’s favorite drink has been the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Rum, which is the Trader Sam’s version of a Painkiller. And they made it just as great as usual, though as her tastes are changing it now might be too sweet for her palette. I asked for a Mai Tai with Smith & Cross Jamaica rum and it was simply fantastic and made totally on point, thanks to Skipper Melissa.
The ability for the bar staff to adapt to customer requests and even develop their own custom “secret menu” items is truly what separates Trader Sam’s from many bars. Even in a high volume location like this, I’ve never seen them bat an eye at this and in some occasions they’ve even encouraged orders of off-menu items. The staff here from greeters to servers really work well together.
Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Rum and Smith & Cross Mai Tai
The Disneyland version of Trader Sam’s has a few special effects when certain drinks are ordered, but this is relatively mild to the Disney World version where you can barely breathe in between effects and gags; the Disneyland version is better where it is a special event not an onslaught. The immersive space is impressive as is the friendly customer service at this Trader Sam’s where we saw a bartender reposition a guest so that they could see the Shipwreck on the Rocks display for their order.
Trader Sam’s has been an intro to tiki bars for so many people who likely are forever spoiled by the dark immersive space with so many thematic elements and exotica music that’s always on point. It is about as good as any tiki bar anywhere given the size and it is our favorite in the region.
We revisit Dec 30 when we visited tiki bars in the valley that we’ve never visited before. Intriguing to me due to their sushi offerings, we visited Kahuna Tikiand Kahuna Tiki Tu. Both are from the same team but there are significant differences in the restaurant type and cocktails.
Kahuna Tiki is in the NoHo Arts District not far from Tiki No and features a large outdoor space anchored by a very mature tree, water features, booth and gathering spaces, an outdoor bar, and a small indoor sushi bar with seating. It was cold so we ate inside the sushi bar. There are tiki nods throughout, though somewhat “tiki lite” in terms of density and quality. We loved our sushi and fried rice.
Kahuna Tiki Tu is a newer location connected to the Mikado Hotel and sandwiched by Riverside Drive and the 101 freeway. There’s a vast main dining area with Japanese touches, plus a large Moai to complement the “accent tikis” sprinkled throughout. There is a dark tiki bar off to the side, more traditionally decorated aside from the gigantic TV. There are few bar seats and some tables in the middle but we chose a bamboo booth. Food menu looked essentially similar to the sister location, though we were told some things are unique in each location. A patio overlooks the hotel pool and some decor elements borrow from Disney and other genres (yes. pirates).
Where the two Kahunas differ are the cocktails, since Kahuna Tiki has only a beer/wine license. As such they can’t use spirits but presumably more than enough of something to suit. I had the Majestic Mai Tai that was a fruit-forward refresher and Mrs. Mai Tai had the cherry-forward Stupid Cupid that uses a Red Vine as a straw. Both were fine, but things made more sense after we learned about their restrictions.
There are no such restrictions at Kahuna Tiku Tu, though their 1944 Mai Tai uses Planteray 5 and since they didn’t have an acceptable sub I went with it to some regret. Mrs. Mai Tai’s Headhunter Martini was a lot better, featuring vodka and banana/cinnamon notes that were really tasty.
Headhunter Martini
We enjoyed the visits including some easter eggs that Arnelle gave us at the first location before venturing to the second. We hear good things from locals that the service here is usually great, so if you like sushi these locations demand some tiki attention.
