Classic Mai Tai Recipe
This recipe is for a classic Mai Tai, the ones that Trader Vic shook up all those years ago. The traditional garnish is a lime shell and a mint sprig arranged to look like a palm tree on an island.
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
To make homemade orgeat, you can check out my 2 different recipes here. Or buy some quality orgeat on Amazon.
Here's a Demerara syrup recipe. Alternatively, rich simple syrup (2:1 sugar to water ratio) can be used in place of Demerara syrup.