Post #600491 by jingleheimerschmidt on Tue, Aug 2, 2011 11:24 AM

What a terrible chore...tweaking Mai tai recipes to compare ingredients.

Indeed! I have sacrificed the better portion of many evenings so that others may learn from my mistakes and triumphs. :D

Anyhow, a quick taste comparison with a few neighborly guinea pigs resulted in this ranking:

mai tai with creole shrubb
mai tai with senor curacao
mai tai with cointreau

Interesting, the cointreau was unanimously dead last. Some preferred the bitterness and dryness of the curacao more. The shrubb was thought to bring out a more pronounced (but not overpowering) orange flavor and also boost up the mid range rums I was using. They really thought I was using better rums. HA!

Surprisingly, a blind taste of the liqueurs on their own favored senor curacao over the creole shrubb. The shrubb "smelled like orange tequila". Whatever! It apparently made a better tasting mai tai.

Anyhow, I will never use cointreau for mai tais but I would not mind using either of the other orange liqueurs. The Senor is about $10 cheaper.