How to Make a Mai Tai Fit for a Tropical Vacation
This sweet rum-based drink is a classic for a reason.
For decades, Vic Bergeron swore up and down that the Mai Tai was invented in 1944 at his Northern California restaurant, Trader Vic’s. And that was that. Until it wasn’t.
You see, there’s also a case to be made that Bergeron’s good friend and business rival Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt, better known as Don the Beachcomber, invented it in 1933.
Bergeron and Gantt have both long since moved on to the Great Tiki Bar in the Sky, leaving the matter unsettled for all eternity. But we actually find that fitting. The Mai Tai is the granddaddy of tiki-style cocktails, and an enduring symbol of the carefree island spirit. And nothing says “relax” like a story you can’t fact-check.
Mai Tai
INGREDIENTS
- 1 oz Jamaican Rum
- 1 oz Rhum Agricole
- .75 oz lime juice
- .5 oz Curaçao
- .5 oz Orgeat
- Crushed Ice
- mint
INSTRUCTIONS
Step one
Shake all ingredients in a shaker tin.
Step two
Strain with a Hawthorne strainer into a rocks glass.
Step three
Garnish with a pressed lime hull (from juicing a lime) and a large bouquet of mint.
Contributed by Supercall