Tiki Central / Tiki Drinks and Food / Updates to The Mai-Kai Cocktail Guide on The Atomic Grog
Post #774982 by Hurricane Hayward on Tue, Apr 11, 2017 9:26 PM
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Hurricane Hayward
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Tue, Apr 11, 2017 9:26 PM
Time to catch up on the news ... I just picked up a bottle of Castillo white, and as jokeiii and CincyTikiCraig astutely point out, it indeed tastes remarkably like Bacardi (in a good way). Plastic 1.75L bottle and minimal info on the label, I suspect it's Barcardi's way of getting rid of extra product and/or writing it off their books somehow. I need to do further tasting and compare it to some other basic white rums, as well as Bacardi's higher end whites, but I can see that it makes perfect sense for The Mai-Kai to use. I made some progress on the Kohala Bay front. I'll post more over on the Kohala Bay thread, but basically I eliminated Plantation Dark as a preferred option. It's now #7 (below Appleton Reserve) on my list of subs ... I just scored a bottle of Hamilton Jamaican Black, which is included in many of the new suggested blends, so it's time to get back to work. I plan to mix all of the suggested multi-rum blends and do a blind tasting at some point soon try and come up with a ranking of the blends that come closest to Kohala Bay.
The bigger news are some things actually happening down at The Mai-Kai. This Thursday, as part of the Tiki Bingo event (hosted by the Gumbo Limbo Chapter of the Fraternal Order Of Moai), there will be a special flight of Mai Tais available. According to the Facebook event, "Mai Tai Madness" will include "a tasting of this classic Tiki cocktail as interpreted by three iconic Tiki restaurants: Trader Vic's, Don The Beachcomber, and The Mai-Kai." As far as I know, The Mai-Kai has never offered alternative versions of the Mai Tai. It's just $10 for the flight, but you must be in the Samoa Room and order before 6 p.m. More info here:
Another opportunity to taste a rare classic happens every Friday, when The Molokai bar now presents "Flashback Friday." According to a post on the official Facebook page, The Mai-Kai will be "breaking out a vintage cocktail from our recipe vault" every month and serving it on Fridays. The April cocktail is the Suffering Bastard, which we enjoyed when it came out of the vault back in 2013. It's been spotted very rarely since then, so this is a great opportunity to sample this classic. I missed the first Friday, but I hope to head down for one or more Fridays this month and report back. Note that this is original Mai-Kai mixologist Mariano Licudine's own version of the Bastard from the early 1960s. The cocktail was created in the 1940s by noted bartender Joe Scialom at the Long Bar in Cairo, Egypt. Trader Vic also had a popular version, and Mariano's take is similar. It was always an off-menu drink, and as demand waned the recipe laid dormant in The Mai-Kai vault. Here's the review and tribute recipe from 2013:
Events, music, art, cocktails, culture [ Edited by: Hurricane Hayward 2017-04-11 21:26 ] |
