The Best Mai Tai in New Orleans

If you were expecting me to tout Beachbum Berry’s Latitude 29, you’d be right. And if you were expecting me to tout Cane & Table, you’d also be right.

Because what is my best Mai Tai may not be your best Mai Tai, as I’ll explain.

Latitude 29: Approachable All-Star

Latitude 29’s Mai Tai was fantastic when I visited in 2018 and remains a stellar entry, combining rums from Martinique and Jamaica, plus a small amount of a secret rum, and Berry’s signature Latitude 29 Orgeat. The rich cocktail has a lot of flavor but it doesn’t hit you in the face with grassy or brine notes that can be a big turn-off for many cocktail drinkers. Even after dilution there’s still a lot of great flavor.

Cane & Table: The Rum Lover’s Flavor Bomb

I was totally blown away by the rich and potent flavors of the Cane & Table Mai Tai that features three rums: Appleton 12 Jamaica rum, Rivers Antoine from Grenada, and Paranubes aged from Mexico. The barrel notes from the Appleton combine with the vegetal flavors from the sugar cane juice rums in a way I’ve seldom experienced, with brine notes and only subtle grassy notes. The heavy rums really worked for me, because I like heavy and boozy rums in a Mai Tai. But I suspect many cocktail drinkers would not share the sentiment.

Different Audiences

I know that not really picking a winner seems sort of like a cop-out, but I do think these are made for two different audiences.

  • Latitude 29 challenges the casual NOLA drinker with elevated cocktails that are so much better than the frozen Daiquiris on Bourbon Street. But this is still a safe and mainstream option, a perfect introduction for tiki newbies.
  • Meanwhile, Cane & Table’s Caribbean-inspired culinary menu bleeds over into the cocktails, challenging customers with flavors they may have never experienced before. If you know, you know – but not for everyone.

They are the best Mai Tai in New Orleans.

Beachbum Berry’s Latitude 29 – Best Tiki Bar in NOLA

We bookended two visits to Beachbum Berry’s Latitude 29 during our visit to New Orleans, making sure to visit more than once to the preeminent restaurant and tiki bar from acclaimed author and cocktail historian Jeff “Beachbum” Berry. Look at the menu of nearly any tiki bar and you’ll find Berry’s original cocktails or more likely cocktails whose recipes were lost until uncovered by Berry. Check out his books Potions of the Caribbean or even better the 10th anniversary edition of Sippin’ Safari for all the historical details written in the Bum’s inimitable style, but suffice to say that every single fan of this genre owes the Bum a huge debt of gratitude.

Inside Latitude 29, there are tables and booths on one side and bar / hi-top seating on the other, and we got to experience both on the trip. There’s a smallish food menu her and while I loved the burger and pimento cheese rangoons, it was tough for Mrs. Mai Tai to find something she liked between the fishy catfish bao and Korean fried chicken. Our service was generally good, though it appeared staff was one server shy of a full crew both times.

Mai Tai and Burger

But nobody comes to Latitude 29 for the food; we come for the immersive tiki bar decor and the amazing cocktails. We’ll talk more about the Mai Tai tomorrow but we’ll say that overall the standard cocktail menu items were really great, including the Navy Grog (the Bum’s favorite), Zombie, and a fab Rum Barrel with a ridiculously over the top garnish. A top-notch Cobra’s Fang was on the special Halloween menu which also featured some other impressive cocktails. You can even get drinks to go, which we took advantage of with a to-go Mai Tai!

Rum Barrel

Latitude 29 was well-decorated for Halloween and it is great to see special decor and the standard stuff mixed in between, complete with a killer spooky soundtrack. There’s a cabinet of historical items in the bar area, plus Beachbum Berry merch if that’s your thing. We loved our visits to this wonderful bar and must-see destination for any NOLA visitor interested in cocktails.

Goodbye, Hamilton 86

Sent off this bottle of Hamilton 86 rum from Guyana in style with a modified Ancient Mariner cocktail. The Ancient Mariner is a Navy Grog riff from Jeff “Beachbum” Berry that appeared in the original Grog Log back in 1998. Modified by me due to the lack of grapefruit juice and a heavier pour of the Hamilton Demerara rum just so I could finish the bottle.

Ancient Mariner (modified)
½ oz Cara Cara Orange Juice
1 oz Lime Juice
¼ oz Simple Syrup
¼ oz St. Elizabeth Allspice Liqueur
1¾ oz Hamilton 86 rum from the Demerara River
¼ oz Wray & Nephew Overproof
Shake with ice, garnish with mint

The orange came through in this and so it didn’t quite have that classic Grog taste, but otherwise this was plenty good.

Ancient Mariner by Jeff “Beachbum” Berry
½ oz White Grapefruit Juice
¾ oz Lime Juice
½ oz Simple Syru
¼ oz Pimento Dram (Allspice Liqueur)
1 oz Demerara Rum
1 oz Dark Jamaican Rum
Shake with ice, garnish with mint and lime wedge

Sippin’ Santa at 55 South / Miracle on 1st in Downtown San Jose

The holiday season continues in downtown San Jose where two holiday cocktail pop-ups are still pulling in revelers. Both Sippin’ Santa and Miracle offer a variety of festive cocktails along with interesting and fun glassware that’s available for sale.

Sippin’ Santa at 55 South

We started at 55 South for Sippin’ Santa, the tiki-themed holiday pop-up produced with Jeff “Beachbum” Berry. The new cocktail and mug this year is Sharkey’s First Christmas, featuring vodka, aquavit, melon and walnut liqueur, lime and pineapple juices. Mrs. Mai Tai thought this was pretty good and I have to agree it was a nice twist and the mug is pretty good too. I had Sippin’ Santa cocktail that has Demerara rum, amaro, lemon, orange, and gingerbread mix – an all time favorite mug and the cocktail is always great too.

The team at 55 South did a good job with the drinks and decor again this year, though the music for our experience was a Sade playlist followed by mid-1950s rock ‘n roll hits. So, not really the holiday vibe. We arrived early and the crowd was sparse, but grew later in the evening.

55 South

Miracle on 1st is at Paper Plane across the street and continues to impress. The decor is elaborate here, and we found the service at the bar to be quite efficient and super friendly. I was driving and asked for something non-alcoholic and received a very nice juicy highball that was fantastic. Mrs. Mai Tai had the excellent Marshmallows & Unicorns, the complex cocktail with gin, several liqueurs, lemon, egg white, bitters, and cardamon. Our friends really liked their Carol Barrel and Hot Buttered Rum, two Miracle standouts. Crowds grew during our visit and there was a line when we left, so go early if you can.

Miracle on 1st at Paper Plane

Miracle has a larger cocktail menu than Sippin’ Santa and the more varied options seem offer something for everyone. Sippin’ Santa added a holiday spritz this year but we think the smaller menu is a deterrent for many potential patrons. Adding a couple more cocktails would help for 2024.

The Castaway

Appropriate for the finale of Survivor tonight, a show I still watch and like. I love the tropical island eye candy, the dramatic challenges, and all the castaway twists. This is a cocktail from the original Grog Log, circa 1994.

The Castaway by Beachbum Berry
3 oz Pineapple Juice
¾ oz Kahlua
1½ oz Gold Puerto Rican Rum (Bacardi 8)
Shake with crushed ice and serve in a Pilsner glass.

The Trader Vic’s glass seems right on point for the castaway theme and I enjoyed this cocktail. Pineapple and Kahlua make a good pair, and this cocktail still has plenty of booze. That Beachbum did it all right.

Tiki Tom’s Cocktail Deep Dive

We had a pre-dinner visit to Tiki Tom’s on Wednesday. We were surprised it wasn’t overflowing busy like it always seems to be but was quite mellow and about halfway full during the 5:00 hour when we rolled in. We ordered some coconut shrimp and enjoyed fast service and knowledgeable suggestions from the bartender.

You can’t always have the Ultimate Mai Tai at Tiki Tom’s (well, you could, but..) so I went deeper into the menu and had a Captain Cleo from the Beachbum Berry section. This is a Rum Runner variant that’s shaken rather than blended and leans more into the blackberry than banana, a good choice in my view. Rather delicious.

Meanwhile they were out of Mrs. Mai Tai’s favorite, the Ohana Punch, so she went for the Banana Hammock with light rum, banana liqueur, falernum, and juices. Definitely a lighter style drink that’s pretty good with only subtle banana notes.

I finished with a Tropical Itch, Harry Yee’s all-time classic dating back to the Hawaiian Village in the 1950s. This version was pretty good and even comes with a backscratcher with the Tiki Tom’s logo!

On the way home around 9:30 it was totally packed at Tiki Tom’s, just like we usually experience. Seemed like the place to be in Walnut Creek on Thanksgiving Eve.

Ultimate-ish Zombie

I was really happy with the recipe for the Ultimate Mai Tai, using my Ultimate Mai Tai Rum Blend. And I was super happy with the Ultimate Navy Grog which used that rum in combo. But I’ve never been able to come up with a Zombie recipe that I liked using that rum. But after some experimentation and tinkering I’m pretty happy with how this came out.

Now, don’t get me wrong, this isn’t as good as a 1934. All hail Donn Beach for developing it and to Jeff Berry for rediscovering and decoding the recipe decades later. So, it is only ultimate-ish. But if you’re looking for a little twist on the Zombie I’d suggest giving this a try.

Thanks to Ed Hamilton and the aforementioned Jeff Berry for developing a Zombie rum to give this the necessary flavor profile and kick.

Ultimate-ish Zombie
1 oz Ruby Grapefruit Juice (strained)
½ oz Lime Juice
½ oz Passionfruit Syrup
¼ oz Molasses Syrup
½ oz Velvet Falernum
⅛ oz Cinnamon Syrup
1 oz Hamilton Beachbum Berry Zombie Blend
1 oz Ultimate Mai Tai Blend
4 drop Pernod
4 dash Angostura Bitters
Shake with crushed ice
Garnish with mint