Ever since I started Pod Tiki I’ve known that I know nothing. There is so much surrounding this Tiki and cocktail culture. The stories, the lives, history, and spirits. I always knew I would miss a thing or two or have to update certain recipes along the way. I’m no novice palate when it comes to rums, and that’s not boasting I just drink a lot of rum, but the exponential experiences availed to me by doing Pod Tiki have given me opportunity to really hone in on the essence of certain archetypical tipples. In particular the Mai Tai.
We covered the Mai Tai way back in episode 1 of Pod Tiki. After all, it is the quintessential tikiest of drinks. But, since doing that episode I’ve discovered through sampling and researching that although the recipe I gave is delicious, and way more authentic than some of the makeshift knock-offs, there is indeed a way to get closer to Trader Vic’s original.
If you want to catch up on the full convoluted history of the Mai Tai I urge you to go back and listen to episode 1 or read the accompanying article at podtiki.com in the Pod Tiki Archives tab. For an extremely brief catch up...
Don The Beachcomber created tiki-a genre was born-Trader Vic began his own brand and became Don’s biggest rival-both became famous for inventing some of the most popular drinks in history-the Mai Tai being the most acrimonious-although Don Beach will forever remain the godfather of tiki it is widely accepted today that the recipe we all acknowledge as the classic Mai Tai is Trader Vic’s.
There, we’re all caught up.
Besides my amounts of ingredients being a bit skewed the major thing missing from my first Mai Tai recipe was Rhum Agricole. Agricole is a style of rum made from pure sugar cane juice rather than molasses. This gives the rum a unique herbaceous flavor. Think, a spring day. When a crisp grassiness hangs in the air accompanied by the light scent of flowers. The spelling, R-H-U-M, is French as this style of rum comes to us from the French Caribbean islands. Martinique, Haiti, and Guadalupe being the most popular.
In this revised recipe we use rhum agricole in the Mai Tai replacing the Barbados rum. Don’t get me wrong, Barbadian rums are exquisite, and make a wonderful Mai Tai, but much to the chagrin of my former self they don’t quite match the flavor of Vic’s original. You see, originally Trader Vic made his Mai Tai using a 17 year old Jamaican rum by J.Wray & Nephew. Well, that particular vintage doesn’t exist anymore. But thanks to good ol’ rumgenuity Vic discovered using a combination of funky dark Jamaican rum and herbaceous rhum agricole from Martinique we could get damn close to that original flavor. As an experiment try mixing equal parts of those two rums in a glass by themselves, the musky-grassy-rumminess immediately elicits a Caribbean terroir.
Another quick addendum is regarding Dry Orange Curacao. I mentioned previously that Peirre Ferrand is the best, and I stand by that. But a $35-40 bottle of curacao unless you’re mixing for a special occasion or to impress is unnecessary. Bols makes a wonderful orange curacao for a reasonable price. They’ve been used in some of our favorite tiki drinks since the 1950’s. Remember not to conflate orange curacao with triple sec, not the same. Curacao is more like an orange liqueur.
From here the only other thing that changes is arguably the most important, and that’s the ingredient amounts. The Mai Tai is best when it’s a perfectly balanced bit of cocktailia. One flavor shouldn’t protrude more than another. Like a fine cigar or wine the flavors should swim in harmony. My initial mistake was adding too much orgeat.
Orgeat is an almond syrup that tastes like Amaretto. You’ll find it in liquor stores by the bitters and mixers, or in groceries amid the coffee syrups. Basically what the author of this recipe did was take the ½ oz of simple syrup used in most punch based tiki drinks and split it into ¼ oz simple and ¼ oz Orgeat. I love almond flavor but neglected to realize it’s also a syrup and adding too much doesn’t necessarily bolster the almond flavor. What it does do is turn your Mai Tai into a sugary syrupy abomination. A dishevelled dosage of saccharine sacrifice.
Okay, that’s all technical mumbo jumbo. Let’s get to making a drink here!
You got your shaker, you got your fresh squeezed lime juice, you got your Orgeat and you got your booze. We want to use crushed ice for this one, if you don't have a lewis bag and mallet for crushing you can use bagged ice. Just drop it a few times on the ground to break it up best you can. Pour into your shaker:
1 oz Dark Jamaican Rum
1 oz Martinique Rhum Agricole
1 oz Lime Juice
½ oz Orange Curacao
¼ oz Orgeat
¼ oz Simple Syrup
Scoop about a cup of ice in there and give it all a good long shake. Keep shaking, keeeeep shaking. Okay, you can stop. Now pour the whole thing, ice and all, into your favorite Tiki mug. If the ice got too melted go ahead and top it off a litte. I prefer to only use garnishes that actually add to the sensory experience. For this we want a few sprigs of mint. Hold them in the palm of your hand and give them a good slap with the tips of your other fingers. This will express the fragrant oils in the leaves. Pay attention the next time you lift a glass up to your mouth to how you begin to inhale a little before taking a sip. With a balanced Mai Tai and mint garnish you’ll get that olfactory tickle of mint before the sensation of cool liquid hits your mouth followed by crisp grassy notes nuanced with rum funk followed by a lingering sweetness. It’s not a drink. It’s an experience worthy of invoking Tahitian gods. It’s also not too shabby on the patio of an apartment in Nashville with my lovely fiance on a spring night. Ah, a Mai Tai and a bad time? Never the twain shall meet.
I often alternate between the traditional Trader Vic Mai Tai with Martinique rhum and the similar “everyday” version using Barbados. Real quick, that recipe is just 1 oz Myers’s Rum, 1 oz Mt. Gay rum, ¾ oz orange curacao, ¾ oz lime juice, and ¼ oz Orgeat syrup. It’s a little less sweet and you get more flavor of dark rum and almond instead of herbaceous.
The great part of my travels through Tiki is that it can be anything. It’s customizable, and even though I try to look for traditional recipes here on Pod Tiki there is always room for what you like. Every drink is a story, so go make your story. Just remember to tell it responsibly.
You can visit podtiki.com and click the Pod Tiki Archive tab for all episodes and articles. Follow @pod_tiki on Instagram and find me at @rum_poet. And most of all, thanks for listening.