Cocktail · Medium strength
Mai Tai
Two rums, lime, orgeat — tiki's masterpiece, frequently imitated, rarely respected.
How to order it: The 1944 Trader Vic spec. No pineapple juice — that's a different drink.
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The recipe
- 1 oz aged Jamaican rum
- 1 oz rhum agricole
- 1 oz lime juice
- ½ oz orange curaçao
- ½ oz orgeat; mint sprig
The story
Oakland, 1944: Victor 'Trader Vic' Bergeron mixed seventeen-year-old Jamaican rum with lime, orange curaçao, orgeat, and rock candy syrup for Tahitian friends, one of whom — so Vic told it — exclaimed 'Maita'i roa ae!': roughly, 'out of this world.' His rival Don the Beachcomber claimed an earlier version, and the two feuded over paternity for decades; history has largely sided with Vic. The drink became so popular it helped drain the world's supply of aged Wray & Nephew rum, and so famous that hotel bars spent fifty years drowning it in pineapple juice. The real thing — sharp, nutty, rum-forward — endures as tiki's high-water mark.
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