Post #239778 by TikiJosh on Mon, Jun 26, 2006 4:25 PM

My common recipe (only a little improv):
2 oz. rum
1/2 orgeat
1/2 oz curacao
1/2- 3/4 oz. lime juice.

No sugar syrup. For rum, I use whatever's handy. The different rums do change the flavor of the drink, so I enjoy trying all sorts. I just got a bottle of 10year Myers from Hi Times yesterday (cost $40, but the shot of it I tried last night was A-OK!). When friends are over, I just use some swill like Capt. Morgan. If it's important, I'll use something better. Matusalem makes for a pretty tasty one. D'aristi works out well, too.
Now, before I get lambasted for using Captain Morgan, let me say, the one advantage to Capt. Morgan and other cheap rums-- they're cheap! It cuts the cost of the Mai Tai in half. Which is probably only important for Restaurateurs and cheap bastards like myself. Cruzan is one of my favorite cheaply priced rums. 1.75L for about $20, but not exactly the kind of thing you can get at Sav On in a pinch.
Has anyone ever tried the orange curacao that's actually from curacao? They sell it at high times, it comes in a bottle that's sort of disk shaped. The label pretty much just says Curacao from Curacao. Pretty simple. I keep meaning to try it. Has anyone else ever given it a shot?

Limes? I buy those little lime shaped juice things in the grocery store for 75 cents. I know it's not freshly squeezed or anything, but it seems to work okay. Advantages-- I don't have to squeeze limes, and I don't have to worry about the limes rotting in my fridge. It really speeds up the preparation, so from the time I get home at night until I get a Mai Tai in my hand is like two minutes! Sweet!

And here's the million dollar question:
What have you ever used in a Mai Tai that you hated so bad that you'd never use it again?
My answer: Rose's lime juice. I was hard up, and that's what I had. It was gawd-awful!

[ Edited by: TikiJosh 2006-06-26 16:26 ]