Instagram Top Nine for 2024

I do still continue to love Instagram, where even the ads help me with my holiday shopping. Plus all the connecting and commenting on the things we love to share. Check out the fun at @UltimateMaiTai on Instagram.

So, here are the Top Nine Posts for 2024.

Kamala Mai Tai (476)
History of the Mai Tai (417)
Trader Vic’s Black Tai Event (345)
Trader Vic’s San Jose Airport Expanded Seating (295)
Congrats Smuggler’s Cove on 15 Years (294)
Farewell Kon-Tiki Oakland (292)
Mai Tai Named Official Cocktail of Oakland (277)
Best Mai Tai in New Orleans (267)
Ultimate Mai Tai Rum Blend Meme (259)

Top Nine says I had 35,200 likes on 253 posts, an average of 139 per post, and that I’m in the “top 1% of accounts with up to 10,000 followers” with 7% more likes per post than average. Thank you for the likes!

Ultimate Queen’s Park Swizzle?

I’d be meaning to make this and it was featured on this weekend’s video from Derek on Make & Drink on YouTube. Derek highlights the difference between Trader Vic’s original 1946 recipe from his Book of Food & Drink with the commonly seen modern Queen’s Park Swizzle using colorless rums and a gigantic float of Ango on top. That style looks great on menus and social media, but leans closer to Mojito territory and doesn’t hold up to the Ango as well. And let’s remember Trader Vic’s noteworthy description of this cocktail, “Queen’s Park Swizzle is the most delightful form anesthesia given out today.”

So, I went with the classic Trader Vic’s recipe that originally called for a Demerara rum. I’m actually out of 86 proof Demerara rum, so I used the Hamilton Florida Rum Society blend that’s 60% Demerara and 40% Jamaican rum, and I compared it to my boozy Jamaican-forward Ultimate Mai Rum blend to see which I preferred.

Queen’s Park Swizzle by Trader Vic
Half of a Large Lime
Mint Leaves
3 oz 86 proof Demerara Rum (Lemon Hart or Hudson’s Bay)
2 dash Angostura Bitters
½ oz Simple Syrup
Squeeze lime wedges and drop shells with mint leaves at bottom of 14 oz glass. Fill glass with shaved ice, add most of ingredients and swizzle until glass frosts. Garnish with sprig of mint.

Comparing the two drinks, the Florida Rum Society rum provided some of the classic Demerara rum smoky notes and overall worked better in this cocktail. The Ultimate Mai Tai blend didn’t work as well because I went a little heavy on the Ango which seemed to overpowered the rum. You definitely want a bold rum in this style of drink.

Hawaiian Rum Agricole Shootout

“Hawaiian Rum Agricole”

The term is intended to help consumers understand that these rums are made from sugar cane juice, not molasses, and so have a different taste from most rums in the marketplace. Though, “agricole” is very much a loaded and controversial term since many people feel it should only apply to AOC Rhum Agricole made in French islands such as Martinique and Guadeloupe. The Hawaiian distillers I do believe respect where those producers are coming from and do attempt to forge a middle-ground by using the term “Hawaiian Rum Agricole”, though the “rum not rhum” distinction seems like the smallest of differences.

In any case, I picked up a bottle of Kō Hana Kea and decided to do a blind taste test against Kuleana’s Hawaiian Rum Agricole and a bottle of Rhum JM from Martinique. It was quite easy to taste the grassier flavors of the JM, which I do enjoy in cocktails. But to me the two Hawaiian rums had a deeper set of flavors and both had a richer mouthfeel and had a nice mix of sweet and savory notes. In terms of the blind test I leaned a little bit in favoring the Kuleana – but it was quite a close contest. Both do very well in a glass by themselves or in a cocktail, and I previously covered how I think the Kuleana works great as an accept rum with others inside a Mai Tai.

The two rums from Hawai’i are really great and I think that it is wonderful to see a burgeoning rum industry coming back in the state. Kuleana’s expression doesn’t specify a specific cane varietal, whereas Kō Hana very much leans into labeling the various varietals with their bottlings. Two different approaches for the two producers, giving consumers a choice.

Revised List of Top 10 Mai Tais

People often ask where they can get the best Mai Tai. So, we’ve recently updated and expanded the list of the best ones to a total of ten. These are my top Mai Tais made without any rum or ingredient substitutions, current as of July 2022, and they’re all great Mai Tais that anyone should enjoy.

Note that for purposes of the “rating” on this list, it only about what’s in the glass and not about the rest of the bar visit experience. Not that any on this last have poor ambiance or service, mind you.

Here is the alphabetical list of the top 10 Mai Tais that you can have right now.

Beachbum Berry’s Latitude 29 – New Orleans
Dr. Funk – San Jose
Hale Pele – Portland
Halekulani Hotel – Honolulu
The Kon-Tiki Room at Palmetto – Oakland
Rumba – Seattle
Maunakea Mai Tai at Skull & Crown Trading Co. – Honolulu
Smuggler’s Cove – San Francisco
San Francisco Mai Tai at Trader Vic’s – Emeryville
Undertow – Phoenix

The list is ever-evolving. We had a close call in Seattle where Rumba is transitioning their Orgeat and we caught the bartender incorrectly using the previous ratios. And we hear that The Kon-Tiki in Oakland and Dr. Funk in San Jose are working on revised menus. So, we’ll have to see how that affects this list.

This list obviously skews to the United States. I’m willing to try anyone’s Mai Tai if a plane ticket and hotel is included in the invite.

Additional details, photos, and recommendations for these Mai Tais

Hawaiian Mai Tai Contest Winners and Recap

My Official Mai Tai Number is 34 Mai Tais consumed in the State of Hawaii on my 11 day trip.

We had three correct guesses in the Mai Tai Contest (I should have considered a tiebreaker). Congrats to the winners: @we.shall.tiki, @farbrorfuzz, and @wishiwastraveling84. I’ll be sending out a prize package with coasters, cocktail napkins, and stickers (bummed nobody seems to be giving out swizzle sticks or matchbooks anymore).

You can see the chart with the plot of all the guesses. Thanks again to everyone for playing along.

Top 5:

  1. Maunakea Mai Tai at Skull & Crown Trading Co.
  2. Casa de Christa Mai Tai
  3. Trader Vic’s Mai Tai at Mamahune’s
  4. Deck
  5. Dagger Mai Tai at Skull & Crown

Best Island Style Mai Tai: Tipsy Tiki
Best Bar: Skull & Crown
Best Restaurant: Duke’s Kauai
Best Beach Bar: Mai Tai Bar at Royal Hawaiian
Best Hotel Bar: Mamahune’s
Best Value: Arnold’s $10 Mai Tai
Best Vintage Location: Mai Tai Bar at Royal Hawaiian
Best New (to me) Location: Tiki Iniki

Stats:

Oahu: 19, Kauai: 14, Hawaiian air space: 1
23 different venues, some who served more than one type of Mai Tai, and others where I consumed more than one
1944 Style: 13, Island Style: 15, Original Riffs: 2, RTD: 4

Complete List

1. Aulani (Island style)
2. Monkeypod Mai Tai (Island style)
3. Splash Bar at Sheraton Princess Kaiulani (Island style)
4. Tipsy Tiki (Island style)
5. Tiki’s Grill and Bar (1944 style)
6. Deck (1944 style)
7. Mai Tai’s (1944 style)
8. Dagger Mai Tai at Skull & Crown (Original riff)
9. Maunakea Mai Tai at Skull & Crown (1944 style)
10. Vic’s ’44 at Mai Tai Bar (1944 style)
11. Casa Crista (1944 style)
12. ‘Awa’Awa Mai Tai at Skull & Crown (Original riff)
13. Halekulani (1944 style)
14. Halekulani (1944 style)
15. Trader Vic’s Bottled (RTD)
16. Koloa Bottled (RTD)
17. Arnold’s Beach Bar (Island style)
18. Arnold’s Beach Bar (Island style)
19. Royal Hawaiian Mai Tai (Island style)
20. Hawaiian Airlines / On the Rocks (RTD)
21. Bamboocha Mai Tai at Lava Lava Beach Club (Island style)
22. Hilton Garden (Island style)nn Welcome Mai Tai at Mamahune’s (Island style)
23. Trader Vic’s Mai Tai at Mamahune’s (1944 style)
24. Koloa Tasting Room (RTD)
25. Welcome Mai Tai at Mamahune’s (Island style)
26. Vic’s Top Shelf at Tiki (Island style)nikii (1944 style)
27. Vic’s Top Shelf with Denizen and heavy Orgeat at Tiki (Island style)niki (1944 style)
28. Tahiti Nui (Island style)
29. Welcome Mai Tai at Mamahune’s (Island style)
30. Trader Vic’s Mai Tai at Mamahune’s (1944 style)
31. Kalapika Mai Tai at Duke’s Kauai (Island style)
32. Classic Mai Tai at Oasis at the Beach (1944 style)
33. Welcome Mai Tai at Mamahune’s (Island style)
34. Stinger Ray’s Tiki Bar & Lounge (Island style)

 

Zombie Grapefruit Shootout

My last cocktail comparison between White Grapefruit juice and Rudy Red juice is a Zombie. For the comparison I decided to use the recipe on the bottle of the Beachbum Berry Zombie Blend from Hamilton Rum since this uses a bit more grapefruit juice than the original 1934 recipe (and significantly less rum, useful since I wasn’t going to drink two full Zombies). The Zombie Blend is pretty great and this does make a very good Zombie.

Unfortunately, from a grapefruit juice comparison the two Zombies tasted nearly identical. I was getting slightly more cinnamon notes from the Ruby version, which might be due to the juice being sweeter and with a lighter body. Or I could simply have measured an ever so slightly different half ounce in the cocktail. I’m pretty sensitive to the cinnamon flavor, and in fact went a little light on the measurement. I compensated by adding an equivalently higher amount of Falernum.

To conclude the Grapefruit Juice Shootout Comparisons:

Thanks to @vonschiltach for the white grapefruits for testing.

Navy Grog Grapefruit Shootout

My previous White vs. Red Grapefruit juice comparison was with a classic cocktail served up, the Old Friend. In that taste test, I preferred the sweeter Red Grapefruit. But that was a cocktail without a lot of sweeteners.

Today’s comparison is with a tiki classic, the Navy Grog. And the recipe is our own Ultimate Navy Grog that blends the historical recipes from Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic, and includes our potent Ultimate Mai Tai rum blend as one of the base spirits. This recipes includes a full two ounces of sweeteners, counterbalancing 1½ ounces of citrus.

Ultimate Navy Grog
¾ oz Lime Juice
¾ oz Grapefruit Juice
1 oz Honey mix
½ oz Pimento Dram (Hamilton)
½ oz Vanilla Syrup (BG Reynolds)
1½ oz Ultimate Mai Tai Rum
1½ oz Demerara Rum (Hamilton 86)
Shake with crushed ice. After pouring into glass, top with 2 oz of Soda.

I made two Navy Grogs and found that the Red Grapefruit version felt thin on the tongue. Meanwhile, I found that the White Grapefruit introduced a noticeably heavier body to the cocktail, and this version simply tasted better overall. So, the White Grapefruit was the clear victor in this taste test.