Post #327327 by The Gnomon on Wed, Aug 22, 2007 8:33 AM

While I was in WM the other day, I made note of the ingredients listed on the TV Mai Tai Mix bottle for those Mai Tai connoisseurs who would like to know what goes into "The Trader's original formula."

Here's what they say about the Mai Tai mix on their site:

Created half a century ago, but as bracingly contemporary as ever, this is The Trader's original formula - and the most requested tropical drink in the world. We've done our homework to recreate the famous Mai Tai of our restaurants, combining the flavors of oranges and almonds and formulating a mixture that stands up proudly to cubed or crushed ice.

Here's the list of the delectible ingredients from the label on the bottle:

Water, high fructose corn syrup, juice blend (water, citric acid, juice concentrate, malic acid, cellulose gum, vegetable gums, ascorbic acid, natural flavor, sodium benzoate (preservative)), natural and artificial flavor, citric acid, sodium benzoate (preservative), xantham gum, caramel coloring.

Wow! So that's the original formula. I'm glad they did their homework.

BTW, I had a housemate one time who was allergic to monosodium glutamate. He made a point of instructing everyone around him how to read grocery labels to do their best to avoid it. In addition to simply calling it out as "monosodium glutamate," he said that the ingredient called, "natural flavor" usually contains MSG or is completely MSG. Therefore, unless the FDA has done something about redefining that term, I'm guessing that the TV Mai Tai Mix contains MSG via its ingredient, "natural flavor."

Forgot to check my spelling...

[ Edited by: The Gnomon 2007-08-22 10:46 ]