Cocktail recipe
Mai Tai
A fiercely aromatic rum sour, lifted by lime, orange curaçao and almond.
Ingredients
- 60 ml (2 oz) aged Jamaican rum or balanced aged-rum blend
- 25 ml (⅚ oz) fresh lime juice
- 15 ml (½ oz) dry orange curaçao
- 15 ml (½ oz) orgeat syrup
- 5 ml (1 tsp) rich demerara syrup (2:1)
- Garnish: 1 spent lime shell and 1 fresh mint sprig
Preparation
Shake the rum, lime, curaçao, orgeat and demerara syrup with crushed ice just until chilled. Pour everything into a double rocks glass, crown with more crushed ice and tuck in a lime shell and a generous mint sprig; the mint aroma should greet the first sip.
Glassware
Double rocks glass with crushed ice
History
Victor 'Trader Vic' Bergeron claimed to have created the Mai Tai in Oakland in 1944, reportedly for Tahitian guests. Donn Beach's earlier rum drinks prompted competing origin narratives, but the specific 1944 Trader Vic formula remains a distinct, documented lineage. Later resort versions with pineapple and orange juice became popular yet are not interchangeable with the original rum-lime-orgeat architecture.
Mixology View
Mixology serves the Trader Vic lineage, not a fruit-punch hotel Mai Tai. The rum blend is a practical contemporary interpretation because the original 17-year-old Wray & Nephew rum is no longer commercially available.