Post #481792 by Tiki Kaimuki on Sun, Sep 6, 2009 7:14 PM

We were lucky enough to attend the "Best Mai Tai" competition on the Big Island and we got to see Jeff Beachbum Berry's presentation on the mai tai. He proposed that Vic did indeed invent the mai tai, but based it on Don's recipe for the QB Cooler. We got to taste both and I was blown away by the cooler. There is a recipe for the cooler in the Don drink book, but the one Jeff had was from an artifact that he found and a little different. Here is the recipe that the bum gave us:
QB Cooler
1 oz OJ
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
1/2 oz honey mix
1/4 oz Falernum(he used Fee Bros, but I could only find Velvet Falernum)
1 oz Jamaican rum( Appleton VX or Special)
1 oz light Puerto Rican or Virgin Islands( I used Cruzan light)
1/2 oz Demerara
2 dashes Angostura bitters
1 oz soda water
Shake everything then add soda and mix at the end. Garnish with mint.
I found that with the velvet at least, I wanted a little more falernum to get the nice flowery flavor.
There are definitely similarities between both drinks, but they both stand on their own as classics.