Post #241774 by Chip and Andy on Sat, Jul 8, 2006 8:09 PM

Who would like to join me in a study of the Mai Tai? This is much easier to do in person, obviously. But, since the Mai Tai is a sort of Holy Grail of drinks around here lets try this online version......

Join me, if you will, on a taste test of the Mai Tai. Not the finished cocktail, but the components that make up a Mai Tai. I would like everyone to mix along at home and share with us your opinions of the tastes used in making a Mai Tai.

First, the ground rules:
We are not going to debate the origins of the Mai Tai, who made it and when are not important to this discussion.
We are not going to debate who has a better recipe or ingredient or anything else. We are examining the elements that make a Mai Tai.

Then, the specifics of this journey....

We are going to examine the individual component flavors of the Mai Tai, and we are going to use Beachbum Berry's recipe from the Grog Log which is Lime, Curacao, Orgeat, Sugar Syrup, Jamaican and Martinique Rums. Why this recipe? Because it come from a source we are all familiar with and this journey will only work if we are all using the same map.

Now, we are ready to begin. Every few days I will ring the proverbial bell and we will move on to the next ingredient. Your task in this journey is to tell us your tasting opinions of each of the ingredients, in the order called, that make up the Mai Tai. Tell us what, specifically, you used in your tasting and what you thought of that taste using descriptive adjectives like "sweet" or "bitter" or "slightly astringent." Yes, this part is hard to do without sounding like some sort of drink Snob, just know that your opinions of the taste are helping everyone and everyone else feels equally silly.

Remember, this is a journey and we are all starting from very different places with ingredients that are easier for some to obtain compared to others. One of the purposes of taking this kind of journey is to share with others what you taste, not why you are tasting what you are tasting. The specifics of the taste are what you are going to be sharing.

Ready? Set..... Go!

I will start. We can skip the Syrup part of the tastes in a Mai Tai because it is simply sugar water. Sweet.... duh!

So, let us begin with the Lime element. Your task to start is to try Lime Juice. Yes, pour yourself a shot of Lime Juice. Go ahead, it won't hurt. And, try as many different kinds of lime juice as you can find. And yes, that includes the little lime squeezy things in the produce department....

Lime Juice. I used fresh limes cut in half and then crushed using my hand held squeezer that looks like this. I like this kind of squeezer because you get the juice AND you get some of the oils out of the peel. Those oils are the aromatic part of the juice that makes the juice smell AND taste good. I find that fresh limes have a nose that is missing from all of the bottled stuff, and that it is generally sweeter then the bottled stuff. I tried some Key-Lime juice from a bottle and it tasted really good, but it left an acidic aftertaste on the tongue. The bottled stuff tasted good, but was kind of limp and lifeless when compared to fresh.

Now, your turn. Tell us about your lime tasting....... And remember, this is for posterity so try to be honest.

[ Edited by: Chip and Andy 2006-08-07 06:44 ]