How to make a real Mai Tai

[cvc]

Like the saying goes, if you want it done right you have to do it yourself.. Here's the proper way to make a true and great Mai Tai..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZUYP1gn-fY

[Craig_From_Cincy]

That's Martin Cate of San Francisco's Smuggler's Cove in that video. Martin is one of the greatest mixologists in the nation, and one of the foremost experts on Exotic Rum Drinks, aka, Tiki Cocktails around today. The Mai Tai is a specialty of mine, it is a classic cocktail that's in the same league as the Manhattan, Old Fashioned & Martini. everyone has heard of the Mai Tai, but very few people have ever actually had a one, and fewer still have consumed a real Mai Tai. I wrote a post about the Mai Tai over on my cocktail blog, which I've neglected for several months:

http://cincinnaticocktails.com/2010/08/13/the-mai-tai/

Martin is dead on with his recipe, but I think that 1oz of Appleton (12yr or Reserve) combined with 1oz of Aged Rhum Agricole from Martinique (I like Rhum St James Extra Old Rum or La Favorite Rhum Vieux)yields a better and more authentic Mai Tai. The 'funky' notes (and I mean that in a good way) of the agricole combined with the rich lushness of the Appleton come close to replicating the flavours of the original 17 year old J. Wray & Nephew Jamaican Rum that Don The Beachcomber used when he invented the cocktail back in 1944.

[Sando]

Good video. I rarely have occasion to call for a Mai Tai and now I know that the few times I have had one, it wasn't. Looks complicated to get right so the bartender has to know what he's doing, which eliminates most.

Mojitos are the happening thing nowadays and I've been mostly underwhelmed. Beer, a martini before dinner, irish whiskey after dinner...that's for me. Just not usually on the same day

...Ray

[cvc]

Hey Craig, you definitely know the history of the Mai Tai.. I found this video from the the Tiki Central website earlier in the year and I've stuck with this recipe since.. I'll have to spend more time to read through your blog..

Ray.. I noticed you live in Orange County.. I'm in the same area.. You need to cruise down to Don the Beachcomber in Huntington Beach and get a real Mai Tai or any other rum drink.. It's a nice bar/restaurant with good food, service, entertainment and fantastic drinks..

[Craig_From_Cincy]

Thanks CVC. I'm on Tiki Central from time to time as well.

[malocchio]

I know of don the beachcombers legend , but many in northern california credit trader vic as the inventor of the mai tai.....a great tiki lounge in the east bay is forbidden island in the city of alameda...

[Craig_From_Cincy]

Malacchio,

Martin Cate, who is in the linked video, ran Forbidden Island for many years before he went out on his own and opened Smuggler's Cove. Don The Beachcomber invented the phenomena of Tiki, and all the food, drink and ambiance that goes along with it, and"Trader Vic" Bergeron followed right on his heels. Tiki has enjoyed quite a comeback over the past several years, and Tiki Coktails are one of the hottest categories in all of mixology right now.

[fallingwickets]

off topic, but may be of interest to you guys...a drinking love affair

THE couple’s first face-to-face meeting in 2002 took place exactly where it should have — at a bar.

Audrey Saunders was then overseeing Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle Hotel, and Robert Hess was the barfly.

Both had become leading figures in the then-nascent cocktail renaissance — which began in the late 1990s with a few scattered professionals and enthusiasts striving to reclaim classic libations and create new drink concoctions. New York became a capital of the movement.

DrinkBoy, the cocktail-oriented Web site founded in 1998 by Mr. Hess, an executive at Microsoft in Redmond, Wash., was their first point of contact. And from that point on, Ms. Saunders, who preached the religion of mixed drinks, through jigger and shaker, knew that Mr. Hess — a man with a published predilection for a classic Old Fashioned, but whom she then somewhat contemptuously viewed as a “civilian” — would show up at her bar eventually.

Finally, a Microsoft event brought him to town. She was ready: “I took his recipe and gave it to all my bartenders. I said, ‘If someone orders an Old Fashioned, it’s him. He might not announce himself. We’ll show him.’ ”

But instead of trying to slip in unnoticed, he parked himself right in front of her, and properly introduced himself. “Here was this lovely, soft-spoken guy with very gentle eyes,” recalled Ms. Saunders, 48, who had been married once before and was dating no one at the time. “I thought, he’s nothing like he sounds.”

They talked all night. When it came to drinks, they shared the same canon: the juice must be fresh squeezed, the ice hand cut and the martinis properly measured.

more at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/fash ... f=weddings

[Sando]

Ray.. I noticed you live in Orange County.. I'm in the same area.. You need to cruise down to Don the Beachcomber in Huntington Beach and get a real Mai Tai or any other rum drink.. It's a nice bar/restaurant with good food, service, entertainment and fantastic drinks..

Yeah, I'll have to do that. I was last there to eat years ago when it was Sam's. I drive past the place several times a week. Do you get there often?

And Craig, your blog is interesting. Do you plan to add more? We need more insights from a bon vivant...

...Ray

[maskaggs]

And Craig, your blog is interesting. Do you plan to add more? We need more insights from a bon vivant...

...Ray

+1!

[Craig_From_Cincy]

Thanks Gents, I've got to update the blog post haste. I'll be writting a post on the famed Navy Grog (yet another drink that both Don The Beachcomber & Trader Vic claim to have invented) sometime this week.

I was at Don The Beachcomber's last year, it's first rate. I also made it to Trader Vic's and the Tiki Ti while in LA, and I also to Hi Times Liquors where I stocked up on some had to find rums. It was a great vacation!

[Craig_From_Cincy]

Clive,

I know Audrey and she's fantastic. The Bemelmans Bar is hands dow my favorite watering hole in the world. It's always my first stop when I get to Manhattan.

[Quarterstick]

I am a beer geek myself, but I do appreciate a good cocktail. I cannot say I have had a lot of them, but there is a marked difference between the Mai Tai I had at Trader Vics and most other places.

[brothers]

This is something I want to pursue. Thanks guys for all of the background and current information. Craig, I like your blog. Looking forward to a close-to-authentic Mai Tai.