Mai Tai

Mai Tai refers to an alcoholic beverage, which is highly popular among the settings of "Polynesian-style". The drink is entirely based upon lime juice, rum and Curaçao liqueur.

Mai Tai Cocktail – History

The origin of Mai Tai recipe lies long back in the year 1933, when it was created by Don the Beachcomber. However, in the year 1944, Trader Vic also came up with a version of Mai Tai in his restaurant situated at Oakland, California. In both the cases, the recipes are entirely different, tasting completely different from each other, with Don’s recipe being more complex. Vic’s version is well renowned, where the inventor created the drink for some of his friends who called it “Maita’i,roa ae” meaning “very good” in Tahitian. From thereon the cocktail got its name.

Mai Tai Drink– Cultural Influence

During 1950-1970, Mai Tai gained huge popularity and was served in various Tiki based bars and restaurants. The cocktail also earned huge prominence in “Blue Hawaii”, one of the famous Elvis Presley films. The drink is widely known among both present and past cultures of Tiki. Almost all the gatherings and get together areas in Tiki contain Mai Tai cocktail as the featured drink. Traditional Mai Tai recipe of Trader Vic is preferred almost everywhere in Tiki. Since the year 2008, small establishments by the name of Mai Tai Bars are seen around the country, which are primarily engaged in the business of serving appetizers and cocktails.

Mai Tai Recipe

Ingredients

Due to several variations of Mai Tai Cocktail, the ingredients used in the preparation of this alcoholic beverage vary from one another. The ingredients used in widely accepted Trader Vic’s Mai Tai include J. Wray & Nephew Rum, fresh lime juice, candy syrup, orange Curacao, French Garnier Orgeat Syrup, and fresh mint.

Preparation

Original Trader Vic’s preparation method of Mai Tai involves combining together fresh lime juice, rum, candy syrup, orange Curacao, and French Garnier Orgeat Syrup, and shaking all the ingredients vigorously. In the end, fresh mint is added to the Mai tai cocktail for imparting flavor to the alcoholic beverage.

Mai Tai Recipe- Variations

There are a number of variations of Mai Tai drink. Trader Vic himself has come up with three different versions of the Mai Tai Cocktail. Also, among various variations of the alcoholic drink, one of them is of Don the Beachcomber. A few popular versions are explained hereunder.

• Apart from the above discussed original recipe of Trader Vic, Mai Tai is also prepared by combining together Dark Jamaican rum, Martinique rum (St. James), Orange Curacao, Orgeat syrup, rock candy syrup, and lime juice. In this Trader Vic’s Mai Tai cocktail recipe, two different types of rum are used in the preparation method.

• Another Trader Vic’s Mai Tai recipe includes gold rum, dark rum, triple sec, lime juice, and orgeat syrup as the essential ingredients, where all the ingredients are shaken together with ice, strained and poured in a glass containing crushed ice, and garnished with mint and fruits, before serving the prepared Mai Tai beverage with straw. This variation of Mai Tai is popularly served in almost all the restaurants of Trader Vic these days.

• Don the Beachcomber’s version of Mai Tai cocktail makes use of water, fresh lime juice, fresh grapefruit juice, sugar syrup, dark rum, golden rum, Falernum syrup (flavored Caribbean syrup), Angostura bitters, Pernod, and Cointreau or triple Sec, as the ingredients, where all the ingredients are mixed together, strained and poured over crushed ice in a glass. The alcoholic beverage, Mai Tai, is then served chilled after garnishing it with fruits.

• A distinct variation of Mai Tai recipe is known as pineapple Mai Tai, whereorange juice and pineapple juice are added to rose's lime juice, dark rum, light rum, triple sec, and grenadine, shaken together and served chilled.

• One of the variations of Mai Tai cocktail consists of mixing together light rum, dark rum, triple sec, amaretto, pineapple juice and orange juice in a glass with crushed ice and served with grenadine on the top.

• A popular variation known as O’Sheas Mai Tai is prepared by adding vodka, pineapple juice, orange juice, cranberry juice, and all natural 7-Up in a shaker, stirred well, strained and served chilled with ice.

• Another variation, known as Samurai Steve's Iowa Mai Tai, is made by mixing together all rums (white rum, spiced rum, Malibu rum and orange rum) in a glass containing ice; orange juice and pineapple juice are added to the mix of rums, and served after garnishing the Mai Tai cocktail with grenadine and sour mix.