Mai Tai |A Classic Cocktail Recipe That’s Been Lost in the Mix
The Mai Tai is a classic, if not THE classic, tiki cocktail. Comparable in fame perhaps only to the Piña Colada, the Mai Tai is a drink that everyone’s heard of. It’s popular for good reason. It’s freaking delicious. But the classic Mai Tai recipe is a far cry from the ones frequently mixed up at chain restaurants and bars.
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Today, most Mai Tais served at chain restaurants are going to be made with artificial syrups & mixes, multiple fruit juices, and are extremely sweet. If that’s your thing, that’s cool. But if you’re been around Girl & Tonic for a minute, you’ve caught on to the fact that I’m not typically a sweet fruity drink kinda girl.
That’s one reason I stayed away from this classic tiki drink. In fact, I’ve never had one until I made one myself. My town has zero tiki bars, much less a craft cocktail bar, so any time I want to have a good cocktail, I’ve either gotta make it myself (not complaining) or drive an hour+ to the next town that’s got a much cooler cuisine and drink scene.
The only thing I’m bummed about is that I waited THIS long to make a Mai Tai. It’s a good thing Texas summers last until October because I need to enjoy the drink on several more occasions.
Similar to drinks like the Daiquiri and Whiskey Sour, the Mai Tai’s reputation has been tarnished by the use of commercial syrups and anything but fresh ingredients. Thankfully, the rise in craft cocktails in recent years has led to a resurrection of the original recipes of classic drinks.
The Mai Tai is a creation claimed by the two original tiki masters, Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic. You can read more about how these two men created the tiki culture in this great article by Thrillist. I think I’m gonna go with Trader Vic though, because he famous said that anyone who doesn’t believe that he created the Mai Tai “is a dirty stinker”. I don’t wanna be a stinker.
Trader Vic, born Victor Bergeron, said he created this drink in the spur of the moment when entertaining some Tahitian friends. Supposedly, one of them took a sip and said “Maita’i roa a’e” which means something along the lines of “the best” and “out of this world”.
The Mai Tai was made to showcase an incredible 17-year-old Wray and Nephew rum. There was no internet to break back then, so I guess you could say that the Mai Tai broke the world. It literally ran out of that rum. Then the recipe started calling for 15-year-old Wray and Nephew rum. And then the world ran dangerously low on that rum, too. People just couldn’t get enough of the Mai Tai. So the recipe was adapted to a mix of Jamaican rum and Martinique rum.
Interestingly enough, the Mai Tai recipe didn’t have any pineapple or orange juice until the mid-1950s when Trader Vic modified the drink to appeal to wider tourist crowds who were frequenting the Hawaiian location of his bar. That recipe was called the Royal Hawaiian Mai Tai but over the decades it began to be used in place of the classic Mai Tai recipe.
The original recipe required garnishing the Mai Tai with half a lime and a sprig of mint to symbolize a palm tree on an island. Trader Vic apparently hated the little umbrella garnishes and wanted them nowhere near his drinks. I like ’em because I like all things miniature, but to honor the man, I restrained myself this time.
Also, I’ve gotta say it– every time I see the word Mai Tai, I think of Matt Birk asking Andy Dalton if he can make him one in this Bad Lip Reading video. Skip to 0:43 if you want to know what I’m talking about.
If you make this classic Mai Tai recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram! And if you’ve had both a modern-day Mai Tai and a classic Mai Tai, let me know in the comments how they compare.
Ingredients for a Classic Mai Tai Recipe
- 2 oz good, aged rum
- 3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
- 1/2 ounce orange liqueur
- 1/4 ounce orgeat (here’s a recipe for homemade orgeat syrup)
- 1/4 ounce rich demerara simple syrup (with a 2:1 ratio of water to sugar)
- garnish– sprig of mint
- garnish– a spent shell of a lime
How to Make a Classic Mai Tai
Add all of the ingredients, except the lime shell and mint sprig) to a cocktail shaker filled with crushed ice (crucial, according to Trader Vic). Shake well. Pour all of the contents into a glass– yep, don’t strain out the shaken ice. Garnish with the lime shell and mint by placing the lime shell cut-side down and arranging the mint to look like a palm tree on an island.
Classic Mai Tai Recipe
Equipment
- cocktail shaker
Ingredients
- 2 oz aged rum
- ¾ oz freshly-squeezed lime juice
- ½ oz orange liqueur
- ¼ oz orgeat (see note for homemade recipe)
- ¼ oz Demerara syrup (see note for recipe)
- 1 spent lime half, to garnish
- 1 sprig mint, to garnish
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients, except the lime shell and mint sprig) to a cocktail shaker filled with crushed ice.
- Shake well.
- Pour all of the contents into a glass– don't strain out the shaken ice.
- Add more crushed ice to the glass if necessary.
- To create the traditional garnish that looks like a palm tree on an island, carefully poke a hole in the top of one of the spent lime shells. Place the shell cut-side down on top of the drink. Stick the lime sprig in the hole. Remove the bottom leaves of the mint to make it look more like a palm tree.
Notes
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