Mai Tai (Trader Vic, 1944)
The real mai tai is not pink and has no pineapple juice: aged rum, lime, orange curaçao, almond orgeat and a touch of syrup, shaken and poured over crushed ice with mint and a spent lime shell.
Trader Vic's says Victor Bergeron created the mai tai in 1944 at his restaurant in Oakland, California, using aged Jamaican rum, orange curaçao, orgeat, rock candy syrup and fresh lime with a mint sprig. He served the first ones to Tahitian friends Ham and Carrie Guild, and Carrie's reaction, "Mai Tai - Roa Ae", roughly "out of this world, the best", gave the drink its name. Difford's Guide adds that the original rum was a 17-year-old J. Wray and Nephew Jamaican rum, long gone. Donn Beach, Don the Beachcomber, claimed he made it first in 1933; Wikipedia says a longtime colleague described that as a claim that the mai tai was based on Beach's Q.B. Cooler. In 1953 Matson Steamship Lines asked Bergeron to set the drink for its Hawaiian hotels, including the Royal Hawaiian and Moana (Trader Vic's), and Hawaii's versions later added pineapple and orange juice and a dark rum float (Wikipedia).
🇺🇸 This one is American
The real mai tai is not pink and has no pineapple juice: aged rum, lime, orange curaçao, almond orgeat and a touch of syrup, shaken and poured over crushed ice with mint and a spent lime shell.
🇨🇺 The original
The original daiquiri is three things shaken hard with ice: Cuban white rum, fresh lime juice and sugar, served straight up and very cold. See the Cuban Daiquiri recipe.
Why it works the kitchen science
Orgeat is the secret
Almond syrup adds a nutty, creamy sweetness that no juice can, and it rounds off the aged rum.
Crushed ice for a sipping drink
Crushed ice dilutes steadily as you sip, so a strong two-ounce rum drink opens up over ten minutes.
Step by step
- Step 1
Method: Shaken. Chill a double rocks glass in the freezer for 10 minutes.
- Step 2
Squeeze the lime and save one of the squeezed halves.
- Step 3
Add the rum, lime juice, curaçao, orgeat and rich syrup to a shaker with about 1 cup crushed ice.
- Step 4
Shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds, until the shaker frosts over.
- Step 5
Pour everything, ice and all, into the chilled glass, then top it up with more crushed ice to make a small dome.
- Step 6
Set the spent lime shell on the ice cut side down like a little island, tuck the mint sprig in beside it (slap the mint first to wake it up), and serve with a short straw.
Mai Tai (Trader Vic, 1944)
Serves 1 · 1 drink · 4 min total
Drink
- 2 oz (60 ml) aged rum (Jamaican, or a blend of aged rums)
- 1 oz (30 ml) fresh lime juice (1 lime; keep one spent half-shell)
- 1/2 oz (15 ml) orange curaçao (or another orange liqueur)
- 1/2 oz (15 ml) orgeat (almond syrup)
- 1/4 oz (7.5 ml) rich simple syrup (2:1), standing in for rock candy syrup
- About 2 cups crushed ice
Garnish
- The spent lime half-shell
- 1 large mint sprig
Method
- Method: Shaken. Chill a double rocks glass in the freezer for 10 minutes.
- Squeeze the lime and save one of the squeezed halves.
- Add the rum, lime juice, curaçao, orgeat and rich syrup to a shaker with about 1 cup crushed ice.
- Shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds, until the shaker frosts over.
- Pour everything, ice and all, into the chilled glass, then top it up with more crushed ice to make a small dome.
- Set the spent lime shell on the ice cut side down like a little island, tuck the mint sprig in beside it (slap the mint first to wake it up), and serve with a short straw.
Adapted from the 1944 formula as described by Trader Vic's (aged Jamaican rum, orange curaçao, orgeat, rock candy syrup, fresh lime, mint) and Difford's Guide's "Mai Tai (Trader Vic's)": 2 oz aged rum, 1/2 oz dry curaçao, 3/4 oz lime, 1/3 oz orgeat, 1/4 oz rich syrup, shaken and strained over crushed ice, garnished with a spent lime shell and mint. We use the widely published original proportions (1/2 oz orgeat and the juice of one lime, about 1 oz), which Difford's describes but trims, and 1/4 oz rich simple syrup in place of rock candy syrup. tradervics.com. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (3)
Tips
- Do not add pineapple or orange juice to call it the original; that is the later Hawaiian style (Wikipedia). If you want it, add 1 oz pineapple juice and float 1/2 oz dark rum on top.
- Orgeat contains almonds; tell guests with nut allergies.
- Our math: about 1.8 US standard drinks, assuming 86-proof rum and 80-proof curaçao.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Trader Vic invented it in 1944. Disputed: Trader Vic's account; Donn Beach claimed 1933 (Wikipedia; Difford's).
- The name means "good" in Tahitian. Documented by Wikipedia (citing the Oxford English Dictionary: "maita'i", good or excellent); the "Roa Ae" toast is Trader Vic's story.
- The friends were Ham and Carrie Guild. Disputed in detail: Trader Vic's says Ham; some sources say Eastham (search summaries).
- A mai tai has pineapple juice. Documented as a later Hawaiian change, not the 1944 drink (Wikipedia; Trader Vic's).
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