Traveling the Bay Area and beyond to find the best Mai Tai in the world! Tiki, cocktails, and adventures by Kevin Crossman
We were able to get a sample of the Appleton Estate 17 Year Legend rum and decided to share it with our buddy Derek from the Make & Drink channel on YouTube. My experience with the rum was a little different compared to my tastings in London and at Smuggler’s Cove.
In the video we compare Appleton 17 to another rum blend designed to taste like the original, the Greg Easter Wray 17 clone.
The Search for the Ultimate Mai Tai was relaunched on Instagram on this day in 2017, reviving the brand started way back in 1998. 2195 posts and counting, chronicling experiences with cocktails, connections with people in the community, and world’s leading feed of Mai Tai minutiae.
We had some great adventures in the last 12 months. A few are chronicled in the photos including some travels with Mrs Mai Tai to far off places such as Honolulu, Las Vegas, Minneapolis and various locations in California including Sacramento, Disneyland, and Napa. I attended Tiki in Waikiki and presented at Trader Vic’s as part of the SF Rum Festival.
42 different tiki bars in the last year. We said goodbye to ones in Minneapolis and Oakland but found new ones in Orinda, Petaluma, and Las Vegas. I was featured on the Make & Drink channel on YouTube and my Ultimate Mai Tai was added to cocktail menu at Tiki Tom’s.
So, thanks to so many fellow Mai Tai fans I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with over the last year. I appreciate your follows, likes, and comments here and in real-life, including the discussion of very important topics such as the best orgeat and whether or not fun can be had in a tiki dive bar.
Cheers!
We picked this up at a craft faire in SF last month. Yes Cocktail Co. has a number of syrups and also has sugar cubes with infused bitters. We won’t be doing a full review of the latter except to say that as sugar cubes they don’t dissolve easily all, rendering them unsuitable for “saving a step” by including the bitters.
More successful is Yes’s Orgeat. This craft syrup tastes great just by itself and is pretty good in a Mai Tai. I made a Mai Tai based on the recipe on the label, using Appleton 8 as the blended aged rum. This recipe only uses ¾ oz lime juice and omits any additional sugar syrups. It made a good Mai Tai, albeit more milky in consistency than some orgeats, though I think I’d have preferred a heavier pour of orgeat and a full ounce of lime juice. Comparable in taste and consistency to Liber & Co.
Heads turned when San Francisco’s Trad’r Sam bar closed mysteriously in late summer. The legendary bamboo bar has been in operation in the Richmond district since 1937, the oldest continuously operating tiki bar in the world. The closure was due in part to a complicated and multifaceted ownership dispute among a brother and sister/niece, along with lease issues. The dust settled with John Munguia taking over operational duties for the first time in many years and the venue reopening in early November.
Aside from settling the lease and operational disputes, the downtime resulted in noticeable updates to the seating and decor inside the neighborhood hangout that in true dive bar fashion still only accepts cash. The bamboo booths named for tropical islands were long in disrepair and have been removed, replaced by new tables and chairs. The blenders and barstools are all new with the bar surface and floor refurbished as well. We noticed there was a greater emphasis on some cheap but well-placed tikis, which I think accented the many historic bamboo elements still in place inside. The previously graffiti-filled men’s restroom has been completely repainted, perhaps the first time in history where white walls were welcome in a tiki bar.
In the previous regime the hours were notoriously inconsistent, but after last week’s SF Standard article that said that bar opens early on Mondays I took advantage of a “wellness day” at work and decided to see how things are before noon in the Richmond. We saw Munguia tending bar with a few regulars who were drinking shots and beer and not the Polynesian Drinks referenced on the iconic sign outside. These regulars were already in party mode when we walked in and soon were treated to a whiskey shot bought by a customer for everyone in the bar. Another regular knew the inside of the venue better than Munguia, running behind the bar to find the remotes for the jukebox and TVs.
Which left it up to this writer to keep up the tradition of Polynesian Drinks at the Polynesian Drinks bar, ordering a Mai Tai. Trad’r Sam features a vast cocktail menu, though on a previous visit it wasn’t clear there was a substantial difference between a Mai Tai and Zombie aside from the garnish. But most the cocktails are just $9, indicating this is a place for inexpensive imbibing and not for refined reflection of craft cocktails. Indeed my island Mai Tai was prepared exactly like the one on my last trip in early 2022 and was so similar it evoked the “they’re the same picture” meme from NBC’s The Office.
But I come to praise Trad’r Sam, not to bury it. The Mai Tai wasn’t too bad, and I had even better luck when I ordered a Singapore Sling from bartender JJ who had recently arrived and really began the bar setup. The Sling contained a mix of rum, sloe gin, a couple cherry liqueurs, and a bit of juice and honestly was the best Singapore Sling I’ve had in a while. Meanwhile, a group of young men came in for some socializing and a couple rounds of tequila shots. I wandered over to the jukebox and immediately found some Gerry Rafferty and Gary Wright songs that tickled JJ and the group of young men. I kept looking and eventually found some Ventures and even a few Martin Denny tunes.
Sitting in the world’s oldest tiki bar listening to “Quiet Village” while sipping a tropical cocktail at 2:00 in the afternoon wasn’t a bad way to spend my “wellness day” after all.
Hardcore tikiphiles certainly have better options in The City, home to at least half a dozen top-tier destination tiki bars. But I think Trad’r Sam is worth visiting as well. True, one minute you might be relaxing with a drink and the next an inebriated regular will be hugging you while sliding over a whiskey shot. It’s that kind of place. It isn’t unsafe, though, and I’d have trusted those regulars to have my back in the event of any trouble. We can only hope that continued upgrades to the interior and maybe the cocktail program will follow with a resurgence of business and the ability to focus on hospitality rather than the judiciary.
This is a fun video, as you’ll see if you watch. The idea is to pick just three bottles of rum for your collection, so while this was a tough choice I actually came to my three basically right away. And regular viewers will not be surprised when you compare my list to the video I did almost three years ago called the 5 Bottle Rum Challenge.
The video is part of the Make & Drink channel, where Derek has been producing excellent videos including a couple collaborations with us. See the previous De-Evolution of the Mai Tai and The Recipe That Made It Famous and World’s Worst Mai Tai videos.
Finally made it out to check the cocktail offerings at Nightcaps at Rosetta in downtown Livermore. This is a coffee place named Rosetta Roasting during the day and transitions to a cocktail/desert (and yes, coffee) place during the evening. The back portion is dimly lit to set the mood. We think this would be a great place to hit before or after dinner.
There are plenty of classic cocktails on the menu, such as a Bee’s Knees, Martini, and Whiskey Sours. There’s even a nice 1944 Mai Tai that is prepared well and features traditional flavors. It didn’t bowl me over but for the venue and clientele it is perfectly reasonable.
We didn’t partake but there were a whole series of pies and cheesecakes that looked fabulous, and we could see the coffee being prepared as well as the cocktails. There’s also a small retail component with holiday offerings right now. Check it out next time you’re in downtown Livermore.
The Fat Pigeon is the new name for the former Beer Baron in Downtown Livermore, newly reimagined as a cocktail bar. And just in time for the grand opening it’s doing the Miracle Holiday Pop-Up to acquaint guests. As such, the holiday decor was at a basic level and definitely not overflowing like places that have been doing these pop-ups for years. Nonetheless it was totally festive with music and plenty of good cheer from the guests.
That good cheer was put to the test due a staff member arriving late and also to an imprecise order for tables to be serviced (guess which table seemed to be in the black hole?). These issues can arise anytime but obviously when places are new and also super busy.
This year’s Miracle offerings were just as nicely varied as in past years, where classic cocktails get the holiday spice and ingredient twists to go along with festive names and fun glassware.
The Jingle Balls Nog was just okay, but we liked the Espresso Martini riff called Rudolph’s Replacement (served in the classic “Santa Rex” mug). Old favorite Yippee Ki Yay, Mother F****r is a Piña Colada riff with Ube Orgeat and just as great this year as it was last time. The Koala Cooler features Applejack and spice and I think felt the most like a Fall/Winter drink. The Christmapolitan had some really interesting flavors including a spiced cranberry syrup and it had a little bit of an apple taste to me, but still quite good. Elfing Around #2 with cognac and champagne was elegant and the mulled wine reduction served the holiday theme very well.
New this year is Marshmallows & Unicorns, served in a mug that was right up Mrs. Mai Tai’s alley. Definitely a little sweet leaning and including soda to lighten things up, this was a treat for several senses. The mug was priced at $20 at Fat Pigeon.
We really enjoyed our time at Miracle and are pleased to see a good new cocktail place in Livermore.
