Tiki

Mai Tai

Straight off the beach

Ingredients

30mlJamaican Rum
30mlRhum Agricole
15mlDark Rum
15mlDry Curaçao
30mlLime Juicefreshly squeezed
15mlOrgeat

Make it well

Shake

Directions

1. Grab a fun glass for this one 2. Add everything apart from the dark rum to the shaking tin 3. Add a little scoop of crushed ice into the tin and shake. Feel free to shake until all the ice is gone. Then pour into the glass 4. Top with more crushed ice up to the top, careful not to dilute too much 5. Float the dark rum on top of the drink 6. 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 7. Grab a straw

Taste

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!

Origin

“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