Mai Tai
A classic tiki drink in which aged rum, lime and orgeat meet in perfect balance between sweet, tart and nutty.
Ingredients
- Dark rum, aged, ideally a blend of Jamaican and Martinique styles60 ml
- Curaçao, orange curaçao15 ml
- Lime juice, freshly squeezed22.5 ml
- Orgeat15 ml
- Simple syrup, optional, for extra roundness (1 part Sugar, 1 part Water)7.5 ml
- Lime, the spent lime shell, to garnish (optional)1 piece
- Mint, to garnish (optional)1 sprig
Method
- Pour the rum, curaçao, lime juice, orgeat and syrup into a shaker.
- Fill the shaker with ice cubes and shake hard until well chilled.
- Fill a double old fashioned glass with crushed ice.
- Strain the drink into the glass and top with more crushed ice, if needed.
- Place the spent lime shell cut side down on the ice and tuck a sprig of mint beside it, so it looks like a little tropical island.
Credit Trader Vic's, 1944
About this drink
The Mai Tai was created by Victor "Trader Vic" Bergeron in 1944 and is the cornerstone of the American tiki movement. The name comes from the Tahitian maita'i, meaning 'good', and the story goes that his first guests exclaimed exactly that when they tasted it. The original recipe sticks to a few sharply balanced ingredients: aged rum, fresh lime, orange curaçao and orgeat, with no added fruit juice to blur the balance.
Questions and answers
Which rum should you use for a Mai Tai?
Traditionally a blend of a full-bodied Jamaican rum for funk and a lighter Martinique rum for finesse. If you only have one rum, choose a dark, characterful one over a very neutral one.
Can you make a Mai Tai without orgeat?
Not really. Orgeat is the drink's signature nutty note, and without it you have a rum sour. A good substitute is hard to find, so invest in a bottle instead.
Why are there so many versions of the Mai Tai?
Trader Vic's original 1944 recipe has often been simplified with pineapple juice and grenadine in tourist bars around the world. This one follows the classic, orgeat-based version most tiki enthusiasts recognise as the real thing.
