Post #639133 by CincyTikiCraig on Sun, Jun 3, 2012 11:54 PM

Some problems with your Mai Tai:

-Fee Orgeat: HFCS laden garbage. It's really awful. All of the Fee's products have taken substantial hits quality wise over the past several years. Simply put, Fee's products are simply horrible these days.

-Bols Curaçao: Near bottom shelf liqueur. Only (very) slightly better than DeKuyper, Arrow, Hiram Walker, etc.

Those two ingredients alone can make or break a Mai Tai, which is (when well made) a delicate balance of high quality ingredients. Also, did you use the Appleton 12 Year? Using lesser Appleton's will make a substantial difference in your final product. Ditto for the Agricole. I only use Saint James Hors D' Age for Mai Tais these days. And yes, when properly made, the Mai Tai is a cocktail capable of producing epiphanies. It's a classic cocktail on par with the Manhattan, Martini, Old Fashioned, Sazerac, Sidecar, etc. As to the portion of alcohol to bitter/mixer ratio in the Mai Tai, it's little different from any of the aforementioned classic cocktails.

Mail order the proper ingredients if you must (as I have done until recently), make your own Orgeat ( http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=21769&forum=10&start=150#628324 ) but by all means do it right. There can be no half-measures where Mai Tais are concerned.

[ Edited by: CincyTikiCraig 2012-06-04 00:00 ]

[ Edited by: CincyTikiCraig 2012-06-04 00:02 ]