Post #429373 by tikibars on Sun, Jan 18, 2009 10:35 AM

On 2009-01-17 18:50, Bongo Bungalow wrote:
Tikibar, help me out on the original Mai Tai recipe... the one on the drink menu is not it? What do I need to ask for to get the original

A proper mai tai is:

2 oz rum (some will do 1 oz. each of two different rums, but I personally like to use 2 oz. of one great one).

Juice of 1 lime (limes vary in size and juiciness of course, but I like to use a hair less than 1 oz.).

1/2 oz. Orgeat (early recipes called for 1/4 oz. each of Orgeat and simple syrup, but today's Orgeats are sweeter than in the past, so I find that more Orgeat and skipping the sugar is better).

1/2 oz. Orange curacao.

Shake with crushed ice and the lime rind, and pour it all into a double old-fashioned glass. Garnish with a mint sprig (not optional).

...now MOST of the Trader Vic's out there are using their house-brand mai tai mix most of the time, adding the rum and a squeeze of fresh lime to the mix. They have to make a LOT of mai tais, and this speeds up the process... but let's face it, this is not what Vic Bergeron intended. FYI, this is how Chef Shangri-La makes them too.

If you ask for it "the old way" or sometimes "San Francisco style", they'll make it more or less as I described above. Sometimes they use lemon juice instead of lime, basically because lemons are more efficient than limes.