Perfect Mai Tai Recipe......tikiphiles discuss

[desi_de_lu_lu]

I love the Mai Tai from Trader Vic's. However, unless you get the Trader Vic Mai Tai mix, it doesn't taste the same..they guard the recipe pretty well.

For anyone who has had the TV Mai Tai, you know it is distinctly different, from say... a Mai Tai at your local tiki joint or even your garden variety bar.

I am looking for your ultimate Mai Tai experience and recipes...now that warm weather is upon us and I have opened up my tiki patio again...

 

[MaryDeluxe]

Will start experimenting right away and get back to you!!!

 

[desi_de_lu_lu]

Will start experimenting right away and get back to you!!!

I wish we could have a tele-portation device that would zoom you to my tiki patio and I could hang out in yours.... lol... I will bring snacks and tiki mugs...

 

[jamespowers]

How apro po. We had them last Saturday. I'll have to get the recipe when I get home.

 

[desi_de_lu_lu]

This was my best google search for the Trader Vic's recipe. I have tried it but alas, not quite the same.. but still pretty good. I think it is in the rum...and I am sadly not the connoisseur i would hope to be ...yet.

2 ounces 17-year-old Jamaican rum
1/2 ounce orgeat (almond syrup)
1/2 ounce orange curacao
Juice of one fresh lime
1/4 ounce rock candy syrup or Simple Syrup
Lime slice for garnish
Sprig of mint for garnish
Shake ingredients and pour into an ice-packed glass.
Garnish with lime and a sprig of mint.

 

[jamespowers]

This was my best google search for the Trader Vic's recipe. I have tried it but alas, not quite the same.. but still pretty good. I think it is in the rum...and I am sadly not the connoisseur i would hope to be ...yet.

2 ounces 17-year-old Jamaican rum
1/2 ounce orgeat (almond syrup)
1/2 ounce orange curacao
Juice of one fresh lime
1/4 ounce rock candy syrup or Simple Syrup
Lime slice for garnish
Sprig of mint for garnish
Shake ingredients and pour into an ice-packed glass.
Garnish with lime and a sprig of mint.

That sounds about right. No tons of fruit juices. No pineapple either.
I seem to remember fogcutters as well though.

 

[Caroline]

That sounds about right. No tons of fruit juices. No pineapple either.
I seem to remember fogcutters as well though.

I just had my first fogcutter last week, from a very old school place, and yes, minimal on the "mixer" parts...lol

I'm pretty sure one of us can dig up a Trader Vic's mix book - there are quite a few...somewhere in here ...(shuffle shuffle shuffle...)

 

[desi_de_lu_lu]

I would love to have my hands on my very own Trader Vic's manual.

At the sake of sounding like a total lush.....there is something to be said about the quality of the buzz you get from a good Mai Tai.

smoooooth......

 

[Mojito]

Now you're making me wish that we had Trader Vic's down here!

I was anti-Mai Tai for a while, although I'd liked it in my younger days. I thought it was too heavy on the fruitjuice (and most of those I'd been served probably were). Then I mixed up one myself on a whim one night and decided goodness - it *is* a yummy drink!

 

[Caroline]

Other Trader Vic drinks...

I would love to have my hands on my very own Trader Vic's manual.

Well because I am a bookish nerd I happen to have access to one nearby. This one doesn't have a Mai Tai recipe, so I'll transcribe the Fog Cutter

2 oz. Puerto Rican rum
1 oz. brandy
1/2 oz. gin
1 oz orange juice
2 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz. orgeat
sherry wine float (does anyone know what this is?)

Build this in a 14 oz glass. Shake with cracked ice, our into tall glass with ice, and add sherry wine float ([huh] ). Serve with straws.

...I can't advise you do that last one, unless you want to get absurdly lit quickly.

 

[desi_de_lu_lu]

The orgeat seems to be the key.

It defines the taste and nothing seems to be a good substitute.

 

[petes hats]

Well because I am a bookish nerd I happen to have access to one nearby. This one doesn't have a Mai Tai recipe, so I'll transcribe the Fog Cutter

2 oz. Puerto Rican rum
1 oz. brandy
1/2 oz. gin
1 oz orange juice
2 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz. orgeat
sherry wine float (does anyone know what this is?)

Build this in a 14 oz glass. Shake with cracked ice, our into tall glass with ice, and add sherry wine float ([huh] ). Serve with straws.

...I can't advise you do that last one, unless you want to get absurdly lit quickly.

Being a bartender I know this. You actually pour the sherry so that it floats on the top of the drink. If you pour it slowly over the back of a spoon, you can "float" a liquour. If you pour too fast, it will mix itself into the drink.

 

[jamespowers]

Well because I am a bookish nerd I happen to have access to one nearby. This one doesn't have a Mai Tai recipe, so I'll transcribe the Fog Cutter

2 oz. Puerto Rican rum
1 oz. brandy
1/2 oz. gin
1 oz orange juice
2 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz. orgeat
sherry wine float (does anyone know what this is?)

Build this in a 14 oz glass. Shake with cracked ice, our into tall glass with ice, and add sherry wine float ([huh] ). Serve with straws.

...I can't advise you do that last one, unless you want to get absurdly lit quickly.

This sounds more or less how I make mine. I squeezed fresh orange juice but didn't include the sherry. I used Montecristo rum. [huh]

 

[MagistrateChris]

If I recall, wasn't the Mai Tai invented at the Mai Tai bar in the Royal Hawaiian hotel on Waikiki? I was there last September. Talk about a place still holding on to many of the vestiges of the Golden Era...

 

[rmrdaddy]

If I recall, wasn't the Mai Tai invented at the Mai Tai bar in the Royal Hawaiian hotel on Waikiki? I was there last September. Talk about a place still holding on to many of the vestiges of the Golden Era...

Well,
That's been a hotly contested point for a long time. Trader Vic said it was his, and Don the Beachcomber said the same......
Methinks that the folks in Hawaii are simply cashing in on their tropical digs and "borrowing" the name...

 

[jamespowers]

Found my Mai Tai recipe.
1/2 teaspoon Powdered Sugar
2 ounces Light Rum
1 ounce Triple Sec
1 tablespoon Orgeat
1 tablespoon Grenadine
1 tablespoon Rose's Sweetened Lime Juice

Directions:
Shake with ice and strain into highball glass or tiki mug. Decorate with cherry. Serve with a straw.

Not all that authentic but made for my taste.

 

[jamespowers]

Oh and Fog Cutter:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 ounces Light rum
1/2 ounce Gin
3 tablespoons Lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons Orgeat syrup
1/2 ounce Brandy
1 ounce Orange juice
1 teaspoon Sweet sherry

Directions:
Shake all ingredients. Strain into a Collins glass over ice cubes or a tall tiki mug . Float a teaspoon of sweet sherry on top over the back of a bar spoon.

 

[Nighthawk]

I love the Mai Tai from Trader Vic's. However, unless you get the Trader Vic Mai Tai mix, it doesn't taste the same..they guard the recipe pretty well.

I've always though one should have a piña colada at Trader Vic's, well at least the TV in London.

 

[jamespowers]

I've always though one should have a piña colada at Trader Vic's, well at least the TV in London.

Save your money. Make them at home :

3 oz light rum (you can split this between white rum and dark rum if you like)
3 tbsp coconut cream
3 tbsp crushed pineapple (you can use three ounces of pineapple juice here as a substitute.)
Optional:
1 ounce whip cream


Put all ingredients into an electric blender with 2 cups of crushed ice. Blend at a high speed for a short length of time. Strain into a collins glass or tall tiki mug and serve with a straw. You can add a cherry and pineapple slice garnish if you like. I personally want the drink not the garbage.

 

[Mike in Seattle]

Furiously scribbling notes & recipes for the post-show parties after South Pacific later this summer.... and some sneered when I bought Tiki tumblers and a big Voodoo Lounge ice bucket awhile back...heh heh heh...this'll teach 'em!