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The Best Espresso Martini in San Jose

Well, this isn’t exactly an exhaustive quest to find the best version of the 2020s viral cocktail sensation, but Mrs. Mai Tai had a couple great ones on our excursion Friday night in San Jose so I thought I would share.

Espresso Oasis at Dr. Funk

Replacing the vodka with a more flavorful spirit such as rum isn’t unique to tiki bars, but Dr. Funk leans into traditional exotic cocktail flavors by also including falernum and orgeat syrups to add sweetness. The rum blend features Planteray Cut & Dry Coconut and OFTD Overproof rums and these work great with the coffee flavors.

Espresso Oasis at Dr. Funk

Pumpkin Spiced Espresso Martini at Haberdasher

We tried another twist on the standard cocktail at Haberdasher, featuring a house-made pumpkin-spiced syrup to pair with more traditional ingredients vodka, Mr. Black coffee liqueur, and coffee. Those mild spice flavors add additional depth and sweetness that work great.

Pumpkin Spiced Espresso Martini

We really enjoyed our Haberdasher visit that also included a Pink Squirrel from a specialty cocktail menu, plus some great service from the staff. I learned a bit about their popular whiskey club as well.

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Back to the Asylum

With extended visits to many Halloween and Holiday themed bars, travel to Europe, and family visits, it has been a long time since we visited downtown San Jose for some rum tasting from the Rum Asylum rum list at Dr. Funk Rum House.

The three rums this time including Cruzan Hurricane rum, an 137 proof firebomb that’s best tried in a cocktail. Better for me were Batiste Agricole and Damoiseau VSOP, two cane juice rums from French departments Martinique and Guadeloupe respectively. These were much more interesting and tasty to sip on.

Dr. Funk recently announced they’re doing a “Fortune Meets Romance” theme for February, incorporating both Lunar New Year and Valentine’s Day. These pop-ups are fun, and popular with the downtown San Jose cocktail crowd, though I’d love to see Dr. Funk be known more for just being a great tiki bar.

We also heard the long-anticipated food menu revamp is coming soon, so stay tuned for updates.

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Trader Vic’s Mai Tai Investigative Report

Over the holidays I received several credible reports that Trader Vic’s Emeryville was making Mai Tais using Trader Vic’s Mai Tai Concentrate rather than from scratch ingredients.

For those not familiar, Concentrate is a product developed by Trader Vic’s several decades ago to ease cocktail production by replacing the orgeat, orange curaçao, and rock candy syrup with ¾ oz of the Concentrate plus lime juice and rum. Note that this is different from the “Mai Tai Mix” that’s available to consumers at retail. In the past, when a cocktail menu listed a “Trader Vic’s Mai Tai” and referenced “modified to perfection” in the description that meant it was made with the Mai Tai Concentrate.

Original Mai Tai, January 2026

The widespread use of Concentrate in the Mai Tai at Trader Vic’s Emeryville ended years ago, and the description for “The Original Mai Tai” specifically mentions orgeat, orange curaçao, and rock candy syrup. Concentrate is still used for Mai Tai variants such as the Tropical Tais, and sometimes for large events, but even on Mai Tai Day when I ordered an Original Mai Tai they did make it from scratch. So, it was quite a shock to hear Vic’s was using Concentrate in the standard Mai Tai.

During my visit on Sunday I ordered a Mai Tai and it didn’t taste like it used the Concentrate. Moreover, I popped over to the bar and the first thing I saw was longtime bartender Saul measuring out ingredients for a dozen Mai Tais and he was not using the concentrate. In speaking with Saul, he also confirmed they don’t use it for the Original Mai Tai.

I am traveling to Georgia next week for Inuhele and will continue the investigation at the Trader Vic’s Atlanta location.

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New Parking System at Trader Vic’s Emeryville

Longtime fans of Trader Vic’s Emeryville remember their small parking lot used to operate for many years on a valet system. Valet was dropped in the return after COVID and the parking lot has been left to customers to navigate ever since.

New for 2026, the parking lot is now operating as a virtual paid lot, with one hour free given to guests. There are signs throughout the parking lot with a QR code to initiate the parking lot payment that operates in a parking meter style where you pay upon entering but can extend your time if needed.

Nobody loves paying for stuff they didn’t used to, but I heard from multiple sources there were lots of problems with people parking who weren’t patronizing Trader Vic’s and taking spaces away from actual customers. So, this change is an attempt to keep things in better balance. It certainly was the case for us  for a late lunch on Sunday as there were plenty of spaces available, more than a comparable interior attendance of year’s past.

Trader Vic’s is also offering some “light and bright” seasonal cocktails and a few menu items as well. The offered cocktails are definitely a little different, seemingly lighter in style than the exotic cocktails the venue is famous for. I’ve heard mixed results from a few who tried but much better for us was a truly fabulous teriyaki salmon bowl (no rice, per my request) that I absolutely loved.

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Mai Tai Seminars at Inuhele: Atlanta’s Tiki Weekend

There are still tickets available for Inuhele: Atlanta’s tiki weekend, January 23-25.

This will be our first trip to Inuhele and I’ll be presenting two Mai Tai seminars, updated and refreshed for 2026! We’re excited to present to a Southeast audience, and having a Trader Vic’s in town is a huge plus.

Are you attending Inuhele? Leave a note and let’s be sure to meet up.

If you’re local, leave any touring tips in the comments.

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Last Christmas: Cocktails

We knocked out a few more Christmas cocktail pop-ups and here’s the summary.

Kona’s (SF) – We arrived around 8:00 on the 23rd for Sippin’ Santa and was enjoying it until they played “Last Christmas” knocking me out of Whamageddon just 28 hrs before winning. The cocktails were pretty good here, though notably their “Mock Tai” was $18 and the mugs were all $40 when other places have them for around $20.

Kona’s in San Francisco

Courage Anyone (SJ) – It wasn’t crowded on Sunday but the staff were welcoming in this newly opened bar doing Sippin’ Santa. I didn’t realize it until after ordering but the Sippin’ Santa cocktail now includes ginger syrup in addition to gingerbread mix, and this one was quite ginger forward. The other cocktails were much better including the Wreck the Halls and Sugar Plum Mai Tai. A regular menu is launching in January.

Courage Anyone in Downtown San Jose

Highlands Sports Bar (San Carlos) is also new to the popup game, hosting Miracle. My Snowball Old Fashioned leaned sweet and was served over cubed ice but still was pretty good, but even better was the decadent Coconut Hot Chocolate. Our other cocktails weren’t as good. but it was good first attempt, if you like sports on TV along with the drinks.

Highland Sports Bar and Grill – San Carlos

Faith & Spirits (San Carlos) is doing Sippin’ Santa and cocktails there were really great. The ginger in the Sippin’ Santa cocktail was much more subdued and my Sugar Plum Mai Tai was the best of all the ones I tried this season. The Frost Bite cocktail featuring tequila was also good, so I asked for an off-menu Kingston Negroni that was delicious. The lounge was well-appointed and has music/dueling pianos some days, so check their calendar.

Faith & Spirits – San Carlos
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Top 10 Mai Tais of 2025

Each year we celebrate the best Mai Tais that we had the pleasure of tasting in the last twelve months. The list includes commercial restaurants and bars, plus Mai Tais we had at home tiki bars and events. For this list the rating is solely about what’s in the glass and does not factor in other elements such as ambiance, food, service, or decor.

Each Mai Tai is only listed once, otherwise Dr. Funk and Smuggler’s Cove would have dominated the top 30, but variants do get listed separately.

Some of the Mai Tais involve rum substitutions from what the bar would normally serve. This presents the reader with more to consider when visiting these places, but highlights that making rum substitutions is often what changes a good Mai Tai into a great one.

Summary of the Top 10 of 2025

A January visit to Smuggler’s Cove set the bar with a great Mai Tai that somehow was bested there later that spring. After the 2023’s “Year of Appleton 17 Legend” we thought that we’d never have another Mai Tai with this rare rum, but I had not one but two including a truly excellent one at Kona Street Market where they amazingly sold this rum at cost! Trips to The Cellar and Oculto showed that ‘please and thank you’ can make for an amazing custom Mai Tai if the bartender has the talent and right ingredients.

A March trip to Tacoma started with an unexpected, amazing Mai Tai at Devil’s Reef, made by owner Jason Alexander with Rare Cane Jamaica Pot Still rum and served unprompted. This bold rum really punched through and delivered an amazing Mai Tai, a testament to Alexander’s bartending skills, and immediately shot to the top of my running list for the year.

Specialty rums are fun, but I was pleased to see that standard issue Mai Tais at a bunch of bars ranked so highly, including Inside Passage, Strong Water Anaheim, and The Fink. Dr. Funk’s Mai Tai is only $8 on Mondays and we drank a ton of these in 2025 and found the quality to be very consistent.

The “Just Missed” list grows larger each year, and the quality of Mai Tais across the globe continue to improve. You can see I really tried to find a Mai Tai to top the one from Devil’s Reef, and while many came close none could actually beat it. The drinks at Devil’s Reef tend to lean more complex than the Mai Tai, and there’s more than a little irony to salute Alexander who once cheekily called the Mai Tai “pedestrian” but there’s no doubt this was the best of the year. Cheers.

1. Rare Cane Jamaica Pot Still Mai Tai at Devil’s Reef
2. Appleton 17 Mai Tai at Kona Street Market
3. Smuggler’s Cove
4. Dr Funk MTM $8
5. Kiki’s Premier Mai Tai at Inside Passage
6. “Xaymaca Mai Tai” at The Cellar
7. Appleton 21 at Make and Drink Studio
8. OG Mai Tai at The Fink
9. Strong Water Anaheim
10. Mexican Rum Mai Tai at Oculto 477

View the Complete List of Top Mai Tais of 2025