Post #159261 by tikiwinebear on Mon, May 16, 2005 10:21 AM

Living in the wine country, most of our stores overstock in the wine section and
leave out some of the better rums and mixers. I am fortunate to find a locally
owned store named the Bottle Barn, which is an equal opportunity drinking store, for sure!

We are able to find all the Trader Vic mixes: Mai Tai, Coconut, Orgeat, rock
candy, etc. They even carry the Shag canisters full of flavored sugars.

After checking out Beachbum Berry's web site, I decided to try the $100 Mai Tai
recipe. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the Saint James Rum from Martinque, or the
Marie Brizard Orange curacao. So we improvised with another expensive Martinque rum and
Hiram Walker orange curacao. The fresh limes are available now for $.27 at the
store too. Mixing up a batch as the recipe goes, we found the $100 mai tai to be very good,
but a on the "alcohol tasting" (kinda a bourbon taste) side. Adding a bit more orange curacao, lime,
and mixers took a bit of the edge off.

Then we tried the plain, simple Trader Vic's mai tai mix with our regular dark rum and
fresh lime juice. I will admit that the premixed TV mix gave the $100 mai tai a run
for its money. Maybe you have to grow a taste for the traditional mai tai after you are
used to the TV and premixed
versions (kinda like going from white zinfandel wine to a nice
chardonnay or pinot noir).

I will continue working with the $100 receipe and see if I can find the right
touches to make it work. Incidentally, the $100 mai tai actually amounted to about $85,
and with approx 25 pours from the rums, each
glass amounts less than $3.50.

We have tried many of the other Mai tai mixes on the market, and Trader Vic's is the
only one we will buy now.