Ingredients
- 30mlJamaican Rum
No Jamaican Rum? Dark Rum — less funk but still good — or any rum you love
- 30mlRhum Agricole
No Rhum Agricole? Gold Rum — a little lighter, a little sweeter — mixes well with darker and Jamaican rums
- 15mlDark Rum
No Dark Rum? Jamaican Rum — mo' funk, mo' flavour
- 15mlDry Curaçao
No Dry Curaçao? Triple Sec — sweeter and simpler — use a touch less, and expect less orange-peel bitterness
- 30mlLime Juicefreshly squeezed
- 15mlOrgeat
- Garnish
- Mint sprig and a spent lime shell with a cherry
Make it well
Shaken, properly.
Grab a fun glass for this one
Add everything apart from the dark rum to the
Add a little scoop of into the tin and . Feel free to shake until all the ice is gone. Then pour into the glass
Top with more crushed ice up to the top, careful not to too much
the dark rum on top of the drink
Garnish with mint sprigs, get a spent half lime and turn it inside out - like a little cup and drop a cocktail cherry in there. Place on the ice next to your mint
Grab a straw
On the palate
On the nose you get rum immediately, that unmistakable Jamaican funk - use a great Jamaican rum. It's limey and tropical, our tasters say it smells like the beach?! On tasting it's sweet and limey, then the rum gets you. You feel that funk afterwards, it's banana-y, dry orange, almost candied sweet. This one is special, it's one of our favourites!
Where it came from
“Maitai roa'ae!” Allegedly the words exclaimed upon the first sip of Trader Vic’s punchy classic. Meaning “out of this world - the best!” in Tahitian, the Mai Tai was born from this initial rave review. Since its first mix in the 1940s, the Mai Tai's reputation has been somewhat tarnished by poor imitations over the years. These imitations however proved necessary as the Mai Tai's ingredients were kept a closely guarded secret by its creator, even from his own bar staff. This is the closest we can find to what is thought to be the original. That is Vic's version, and he told it often. Donn Beach, of Don the Beachcomber, spent years insisting he had got there first in 1933 and that Vic had simply borrowed the thing wholesale. Neither of them ever produced anything that settles it, and both were showmen with a bar to promote. So take your pick: the Mai Tai is either Vic's 1944 invention or Donn's 1933 one, depending which founding father of tiki you'd rather believe.
Keep pouring
If you like the Mai Tai, try these
The bartender’s note
One drink, one story, one bottle worth buying.
Thursday evening, so you have time to shop. No more than that.