Post #544667 by bigbrotiki on Mon, Jul 26, 2010 8:11 PM

Posted and scanned, there it is! Doesn't mean it's true though :) As many others who ever specialized in any specific field have experienced, the news-printed word must often be taken with a grain of salt. Just a couple of months ago, a major travel magazine stated the Book of Tiki had been published in 2003, while it actually came out in September of 2000, and already went into its third printing in 2003.

Let's see what Trader Vic had to say in his 1970 press kit, which was published in conjunction with his court case about his invention of the Mai Tai:

Now in 2000, I published the most important page from that press kit on page 169 of the Book of Tiki, here are some closer scans of it:

This version has been accepted by the majority of cocktail historians and was quoted Jeff Berry (with a wink), who wrote a couple of fascinating pages on the various claims about the Mai Tai's origin in his newest tome Beachbum Berry Remixed.

Since Vic had a falling out with the Honolulu Trader Vic's owners, I bet they just loved to "aggravate his ulcer" with all sorts of little stories like the one above. I personally like to trust the handwritten signatures in my possession. Vic might have been an insufferable bastard at times, but no one would call him a lying bastard.