When working through the Rum Asylum list you can have the rum in a Daiquiri for $3 more. I wisely decided this was a great perk for the Denizen White (to up) 5 Year, a crisp lighter leaning rum that’s perfect in this format when expertly prepared and balanced like it was during our visit. I then chose Planteray Xaymaca Jamaica rum with an ice cube, so Dr. Funk dropped in a big ol’ rock in there and it tasted great.
Crowd wasn’t too bad when we got there, apart from the chick at the table next to us who had an extremely high pitched laugh that was constantly irritating us even we went around the corner to the restroom. There were also plenty of people enjoying the heat lamps out on the patio and music was on point as well.
This is a very serviceable Mai Tai that would be a pretty good destination if not for the fact that it is four doors down from Dr. Funk on San Pedro Square in downtown San Jose.
Trader Bob’s Mai Tai features the excellent Smith & Cross Jamaica rum, but whereas Dr. Funk pairs Smith & Cross with Appleton 12 year, District pairs it with the underwhelming Planteray Original Dark. So, this is just an okay rum blend. The lightly garnished cocktail also features homemade Orgeat plus Falernum, though I thankfully didn’t get a ton of spice notes that you sometimes get from Falernum. Overall, the flavor profile leans light and something a bit more than mild, and it is well balanced.
District seems to have a lot of focus on wine but also has a nice cocktail menu including this 1944 style Mai Tai. It is another quality destination in downtown San Jose.
This cocktail from former Zombie Village bar manager Sam Miller was the featured cocktail on Make and Drink on YouTube this week. We recently saw Miller at the reunion event at Zombie Village where the Samson Swizzle was on the menu, and I really should have ordered it.
Samson Swizzle by Sam Miller ¾ oz Lime Juice ⅓ oz Cinnamon Syrup ⅓ oz Passionfruit Syrup 1 oz Real McCoy 3 / light Barbados rum 1 oz Rum Bar Gold / lightly aged Jamaican gold rum Angostura Bitters float “Handful” of Mint leaves Soda water Build over the mint, top with ice and then swizzle. Add soda and more ice to fill, then float Angostura Bitters.
I didn’t have either of the specified rums at home. I subbed with Probitas which is a blend of mostly lightly aged Barbados rum and a bit of Jamaica rum, and used Planteray Xaymaca as a sub for the Rum Bar Gold.
This is a delicious cocktail and the soda is an important component as it helps to incorporate the mint flavors throughout the cocktail. The amount of Ango would vary depending on your personal preference.
Monday was a good night out in downtown San Jose, with Dr. Funk hosting Risky Quizness doing Friends trivia. This is Mrs. Mai Tai’s favorite show, and I expected her to a lot better than when we went to Office trivia and I didn’t really do very well (reminder: I used to cohost an Office podcast!). Unfortunately, the questions posted were, well, let’s just call them deep cuts and we didn’t do much better this time. Considering the level of difficulty, we’re not sure we’ll do more of these trivia events.
Nonetheless we did have a good time, thanks to more rums from the Dr. Funk Rum Asylum Level 1 list. As with my previous post about choosing a trio of easy sippers, this time I went thematic again with three white rums that show how diverse unaged rums can be.
The three rums are:
Wray & Nephew White Overproof Jamaica Rum
Kō Hana Kea from O’ahu
Rhum JM Agricole Blanc from Martinique
What a fabulous way to show how diverse rum can be with these three unaged rums. The Wray & Nephew is made from molasses and is a flavorful high-proof fruit bomb, whereas the Rhum JM is made from sugar cane juice and features grassy and vegetal notes. My favorite in this group was the very pleasant and mild Kō Hana Kea that has balanced flavors from the Hawaiian cane.
Meanwhile Mrs. Mai Tai knocked off another from her Rum Asylum list by having a Bacardi Ocho in the Daiquiri format. So clean and definitely more flavorful than the standard Bacardi.
Our sons enjoyed some classic Dr. Funk cocktails including the Shipwreck, Saturn’s Sunrise, and Phoenix Rising – plus some great Nacho Fries and Coconut Shrimp, but our entire table disliked Dr. Funk’s version of the Jungle Bird that uses the Cruzan Black Strap rum with its overbearing maple syrup flavor.
San Jose’s “hidden tiki bar” remains anything but, thanks to a thematic shamrock light display that all along San Pedro Square can see. Monday was pretty busy thanks to the trivia and also Dr. Funk’s stellar drinks.
Spoilers ahead for the most recent episode of Make and Drink on YouTube
When Derek from Make and Drink invited me for a blind test of the core lineup of Appleton Estate rums I was confident that I would prefer my favorite expression from the range, Appleton 12 Rare Casks. This has been my go-to single bottle Mai Tai for over a decade, featuring a blend of pot and column still distillate, long tropical aging, and a rich flavor that works great in the cocktail.
I was also expecting to not prefer Appleton’s entry level expression, Appleton Signature, aged for around four years and a lower proof as well. And I also expected to not really dig Appleton’s longest aged expression, Appleton 21 Nassau Valley Casks. In the past my perception was that I didn’t really like this rum feeling that the body was not as heavy nor as complex despite two decades of aging.
Such was my surprise that I preferred Appleton 21, and it honestly wasn’t even close! The bold barrel notes worked well with the rest of the Mai Tai ingredients to present something that had a bit more to chew on than my second favorite in the blind test, Appleton 12. I feel less bad in that Derek preferred the 21 as well. Of course, Appleton 21 being three times the price of Appleton 12 means that it wasn’t like the Mai Tai was three times better, so factoring price into account Appleton 12 is still the winner.
The blind test shows that you need to check your assumptions from time to time and address the reality that your taste can change over time or that perhaps your previous experience was an off day for your palette. Apologies for the shade, Appleton 21.
We thank Derek for providing the venue to taste the rums in this format.
Check out today’s episode of Make and Drink where I visited the Make and Drink bar to try all of the mainstream Appleton Estate Rum releases in a Mai Tai and via a blind taste test to declare a winner.
This was similar to the Single Bottle Mai Tai Rum challenge I did with Derek last year, though this time the results didn’t quite go as expected at least for this writer. In any case, this was a lot of fun and hopefully informative. Appleton makes great rums and any great rum will do well in the Mai Tai cocktail format.
The Appleton Estate rums we tested were:
Appleton Signature
Appleton 8 yr Reserve
Appleton 12 yr Rare Casks
Appleton 15 yr Black River Casks
Appleton 21 yr Nassau Valley Casks
Be sure to stick to the end to see the results that might shock you.
When downtown San Jose’s Dr. Funk opened in 2021 it came with the moniker “Rum House / Kitchen” but to date there hasn’t been a lot of emphasis on rum itself apart from a well-stocked back bar. That changed this week with the lunch of a rum club called the Rum Asylum.
Taking nods from the legend of Doctor Bernhard Funk, the club features thematic levels including the starting level called “Inpatient” that features twenty notable rums including one flight. The booklet that you keep with you includes a graphical map of your journey and places for the crew to stamp the spot after you order your item. Rewards and future levels are slated to be revealed soon.
Shockingly, Mrs Mai Tai decided to start the list herself, so we both ordered the rum flight that provides a nice intro to rum with Planteray Pineapple, Paranubes cane rum from Mexico, and Appleton 12 from Jamaica. Each rum on the list can be ordered as a Daiquiri for a $3 up-charge, and Kō Hana Kea was a big hit for Julie in format. Meanwhile, I went to “oak town” with Appleton 21 and Privateer Queen’s Share, each of which feature tons of wood aging notes.
This new program is just getting off the ground, but look for rum-related events and additional levels with some interesting and unique rewards to be announced soon. In the meantime, now is a perfect time to explore the initial list that includes a very nice variety of mainstream rums all under $50 for a 1½ oz pour (most substantially less). The list includes Dr Funk’s unique blend of Myers’s Single Barrel Select and rums from Martinique, Barbados, the United States, and more.
Thanks to Amanda Hastings for hosting the launch event and helping customers get acquainted. Note: nurse Amanda will not be appearing nightly.
