Post #252907 by thinkingbartender on Thu, Sep 7, 2006 1:39 PM

It is strange how I always get the same sort of responses on Tiki Central. Every drink is lauded as being so very different when they are not really. A splash here, a splash there may change the nuances of the drink, but it doesn't change the basic structure.

Most good bartenders can see the similarities. orange curacao, triple sec, cointreau, are not that vastly different enough that it matters. The same for orgeat syrup and falernum syrup (yes, yes, I know all about the ginger and lime peel undertones).

My feeling is that Trader Vic just kept re-hashing the same ideas with whatever ingredients were available to him, depending on the stock in a particular bar or region.

The Bermuda Yacht Club Cocktail is just not catchy as names go, and does not evoke some tropical island bar, but it does sound like a drink at a yacht club!-)

Mai Tai is a triumph of branding and marketing. A mysterious, little understood exotic phrase, used to give mystique to a tried and tested combination of flavours.

Wayne Curtis, if I recall correctly, says that Don Beach probably created A Mai Tai before Trader Vic, but that TV deserves to be remembered because of his better recipe.

Does the Mai Tai name deserve to be remembered because it is a better name than Bermuda Yacht Club Cocktail? I think so.