Hrm, New to this Mai Tai thing, but I've given it an honest try...

OK... I've not yet had a chance to visit the Tiki Temples here in SoCal (Tiki-Ti, Trader Vic's, or Lucky Tiki).

I'm desperate, and I want to try to get an idea of what the canonical reference point recipe for a Mai Tai is.

I buy a boxful of rums: Trader Vic's Dark "original", Applegate "VX", J. Wray and Nephew Overproof White, and Cruzan Light.

I find the (almost impossible to find) Orgeat Syrup (Torani Brand). I get De Kuyper Curacao and Bols Triple Sec. I buy two bottles of Trader Vic's "Mai Tai Mix", a bottle of Nantucket "Mojito" mix which I selected based on its ingredients: real lime juice, cane sugar, and mint oil. (nothing from concetrate and no preservatives)

(These Nantucket mixes are the best I've ever seen, but are very expensive: $8/bottle.)

Note to Californians: Beverages + More stocks many excellent rums [all of the above were sourced there] plus Trader Vic's Mai Tai Mix and De Kuyper Curacao.

The Nantucket mixes were sourced from Cost Plus at $8/bottle when bought in pairs.

My dalliance thus far:

4 oz Trader Vic's Dark Rum
4 oz J. Wray Overproof "white" rum
16 oz parts of Trader Vic's Mai Tai Mix
Splash (1-2 oz) of "Mojito" mix
Juice of two key limes [the little ones]
Splash (2-3 oz) of Trader Joe's Pineapple Juice
(the above shaken with ice)

Served in:
in a glass (transparent) "bamboo" highball obtained from Cost Plus for $2/each.
on the rocks, and garnished with fresh mint leaves.

[I didn't have fresh pineapple, alas].

It seemed to taste pretty good. Probably a bit potent [to judge how things started to move on their own volition after two batches of these [shared with one friend]].

The taste was agreeable - and my non-Tiki friend seemed to find the drink very agreeable. My thinking with the Mojito mix was to get some of the mint and lime taste into the drink.

So... was I close, or should I keep "plugging away"?

I'm a bit in the dark here, as I've yet to try a properly canonical Tiki fashioned Mai Tai.

So far, it's quite agreeable, and it's already tastier than what I've recieved in non-Tiki bars which don't pretend to know how to make them properly.

Impression thus far: perhaps it was a little bit sour [and probably a bit potent!]...

I am afraid to do this drink "from scratch" (from Orgeat/Curacao/etc) until I have the calibration for what it should taste like first. BevMo carries Torani Orgeat Syrup, amazingly enough, but it was the last of 10 futile stops to source it - Cost Plus does not carry it.

Anyway... feedback would be dearly appreciated, fellow Tiki lovers,

=Kukoae=

Morning
I would look at the "ideal mai tai formula" posting just below this one, and try to get a copy of Beachbum Berry's Grog Log for starters. You might try buying the mixs and sryrups direct from Trader Vics if u cant find them. Best of luck in your quest,
Aloha.

J Wray and Nephew's overproof rum is the equivalent of moonshine in your drink. Don't mix with that.

Appleton's is what J. Wray used to be.

TV's Mai Tai mix is OK, but not what Vic himself mixed them with.

At Trader Vic's website you can find the original recipe and experiment from that.

Don't forget the FRESH MINT!!

Kukoae -

Just visit http://www.beachbumberry.com and go to the $100 Mai Tai page. You already have the right Jamaican rum (Appleton VX) and the DuKuyper Orange Curacao will do if you can't find Marie Brizard. Just buy the Rhum St James Hors D'age (from http://www.internetwines.com/spirits-rumtemplate.html or http://www.samswine.com/Products/Product.aspx?SKU=249896), the rock candy syrup and orgeat from http://www.tradervics.com, limes and mint and you'll be all set. Learn from the master Beachbum Berry! Save the pineapple juice for another drink.

Yes, appologies to the Purple Orchid but there should be no pineapple in a Mai Tai (PO's is pretty good for a pineapple mai tai, though). Get a copy of the Grog Log and mix that recipe. Double the amounts of orgeat and rock candy if you find it too tart. Use a good aged rum and a good dark rum. No overproof, no pineapple, no triple sec, no grenadine. No mojito mix either. Don't even use that for a mojito.

You can find lots more great info for fine-tuning mai tais on this thread:
the ideal Mai Tai formula?

On 2005-05-11 17:40, PiPhiRho wrote:
No mojito mix either. Don't even use that for a mojito.

Amen to that brother. I'm sure those mojito mixes are fine and all, and they may use all natural ingredients and what not, but a proper mojito is so darned easy to make that it just seems strange to bother using a mix to make a lesser drink.

It'd be like using "martini mix" or "manhattan mix".

If you can grow mint, keep a stock of sugar syrup, light rum, and canned soda water on hand, you are never more than one lime and two minutes away from a fine mojito.

Ahu (oddly enough, I happen to have a bottle of "martini mix" from the sixties. "just add liquor!" Yuck.)

Excellent! This is just the feedback I've been hoping for.

After some experimentation, I've discovered indeed that the Mojito Mix (despite its nice ingredients) is a bit of a mistake. Ah well.

I wanted to avoid having to keep fresh mint around (I can buy it for $0.69/bunch, but it ends up going dark before I can use even 1/5th of it). I think the mint is a bit old - the leaves are largish, and I imagine the younger leaves offer a lighter/sweeter flavour. The mint I get (at an Asian market) SMELLS great and just like mint you'd expect, but its taste on the tongue is a bit bitter.

Also, do the Dark Rums have a place at all in this drink? I see a "Continental Divide" - where some recipes have a "dark rum" mixed with a white, while others have a premium aged rum mixed with a white.

I do note the very different flavour profiles of the darker rums -- the question is of course, how much of this is desirable in a Mai Tai?

My "confusion" regarding the pineapple juice stems from the nearly ubiquitous presence of fresh pineapple wedges in the Mai Tais I've seen/tasted "out in the wild": even at the celebrated Tiki-Ti, which serves their Mai Tais with a cut of fresh pineapple and a Maraschino Cherry.

In fact, I've YET to ever be handed a Mai Tai with the oft-described fresh MINT as the primary/sole garnish.

So..... I get all of these mixed messages.

At the moment, my Rum collection is as follows:

J. Wray + Nephew Overproof White
Cruzan Light
Appleton VX
Trader Vic's Dark Rum

In my supporting cast, I have:

Bols Triple Sec
De Kuyper Curacao

Bringing up the sweets:

Torani Orgeat Syrup [smells great], and some Trader Vic's Mai Tai mix. I'm not QUITE at the stage where I've weened off the TV Mai Tai Mix, primarily because of the lack of proper "control flavours" to establish what this bloody drink should really taste like. Yes, I'm a geek. I hate the thought of going off into the weeds here while my tastes for this thing are "new".

So far, it's tasty as hell... I get the almond, a bit of the orange, and the rums provide a punchy bassline foundation of something almost like molasses, and yet sweet too of a different character. The fresh lime juice [I've been using the little "key limes"] is also important too.

All in all, this is a fun exploration. I shake up my Mai Tais in an "Atlas" canning jar and strain it with the rubber-lined lid into my (glass :/ ) bamboo-shaped highballs [which have 2-3 ice cubes].

Cheers!
=Kukoae=

On 2005-05-12 08:59, KuKuAhu wrote:
Amen to that brother. I'm sure those mojito mixes are fine and all, and they may use all natural ingredients and what not, but a proper mojito is so darned easy to make that it just seems strange to bother using a mix to make a lesser drink.

It'd be like using "martini mix" or "manhattan mix".

Wellllll, that's not quite true. A martini's just dry vermouth and the neutral hooch of choice. Both components keep indefinitely with zero effort.

Mint and fresh limes have limited shelf lives. I don't quaff more than 2 Mai Tais in a sitting ever, and certainly not every night.

=Kukoae=

For the freshest mint & limes you could try growing your own.

Mexican & Bearss limes grow happily in Southern California, and this is the time of year to find them in garden centers. You can find small ones that'll be happy growing in a large pot on a patio.

Be careful about planting mint in a garden, it throws out roots in every direction & can come up as a new plant from the root ends. I've seen one plant infest an entire yard & move into the surrouding yards, too. The roots can grow out through the drainage hole in the bottom of a pot & into the ground & get into your garden that way, so plant your mint in either porus pots with no drainage holes, pots with built in bottoms, or put the pots on solid concrete with no access to the surrounding soil.

Rev. Dr. Frederick J. Freelance, Ph.D., D.F.S

[ Edited by: freddiefreelance on 2005-05-13 08:51 ]

Kukoae I really think you're "overthinking" the whole process here! You need to get the proper ingredients - your rum collection is coming along - buy the orgeat and rock candy syrup from Trader Vic's - buy the limes - and for $.69 a bunch buy the mint, use the 2 or 3 sprigs you need and toss the rest... that's a lot cheaper than I can buy it. I usually hold onto the packages for a while and have to forage through the brown to find a salvageable sprig! Besides, you can plant your own mint - the stuff grows like a weed - before you know it you'll have more than you need! You're only a few ingredients shy of a real Mai Tai don't make it harder than it has to be! :)

Since this seems to have resurrected the ideal Mai_Tai thread, I will post this here.
Regarding Curacao in the TV MaiTai recipe, I think one may need to think of DeKuyper similarly to the Wray and Nephew in that it probably is not what it once was. I know folks have said go for the Marie Brizzard. True, it is good, but also unavailable in some locales. I was reading a British bar recipe book recently in which the author said that triple sec is (or more correctly, was) simply a name for "white" (i.e. clear) orange curacao. Further, that Cointreu (SP?) used to be called triple sec and discontinued that after it sort of became an overused term for a cheaper product based on grain neutral spirits (vodka) rather that brandy as it once was and still is by the finer makers such as Brizzard, Grand Marnier and the aforementioned Cointreu.
So, I tried using Grand Marnier in a
TV MT and it really makes a difference in flavor over the lesser brands.
As to the rock candy syrup, the TV brand has a definite almond and possibly a slight citrus note (could be an acidic preservative) so when I make it at home, I put in a dash of vanilla extract for a batch (or boil with a piece of vanilla bean if I have some.) Overall, the idea is to enhance and support the flavor of very fine sipping rums subtlely with just the right balance of sweet, sour, citrus, almond and vanilla with no one flavor or aroma dominating the mix.

Re: Mint

I have to agree with all those here. You should grow some. It is so damned easy, and then you always have it on hand without storing it. If you can grow dandelions, you can grow mint.

Ahu

Kukoae...
Take a deep breath my friend.

Now, fill your shaker with ice and add:
Juice of 1 lime (squeeze it yourself)
1/4oz. Sugar syrup, rock candy syrup, Whatever
1/4oz. Orget
1/2oz. Orange Curacao
1oz. Light (gold) Rum (I like Appeltons or Cruzan)
1oz. Dark Rum (I like Myers. Your TV Dark will be fine)
Shake it up and pour in a glass.
Add a sprig of mint (for smell, not taste).
A piece of pinapple and a cherry is fine too if you want. They make a nice snack at the end of your drink.
Now, sit down sip and enjoy.
Repeat.

Aloha,
:tiki:

I had to make my own Simple Syrup (oddly, while Bevmo stocks TV's Mai Tai Mix and Passion Fruit Syrup, they don't have their Orgeat or Rock Candy Syrup)... In fact, I've yet to find TV's Rock Candy Syrup at all so far in SoCal markets. Yeah, I can mail order it, I guess, but... it seemed easier to make it myself.

My recipe:

2 pounds of sugar (about 1/2 of this ended up being white sugar, and the other 1/2 "organic" washed (a bit beige) sugar [not demerara]).
2 cups of water

At first, I was dubious that much sugar was going to dissolve into so little water, but amazingly enough, it does... making a rather thick syrup in the process. I recycled my spent TV Mai Tai Mix bottles [rather fitting, since I'm now confident enough to kick the "premix" bucket, as it were].

I put a little capful of organic vanilla extract into the syrup and stirred it well, based on the backchat I've seen that TV's Rock Candy Syrup has a bit of vanilla in it. I'd verify it for myself, if only I had some.

Anyway...

So as of tonight, I had my very first from-scratch, Beachbum-Berry regulation Mai Tai. It is a truly wonderful drink. Very different (as you'd expect) from all of the drinks I made with the premixes.

The bummer was how many bloody "key" limes I had to squeeze for 1oz of lime juice. Yeesh, about 4-5!! I'm going to need a lime juicer if I'm going to continue along this path.

Rums were: Appleton VX and Cruzan Light (the transparent/white stuff)

Curacao was DeKuyper [bottle contents say it's distilled in the USA]

Orgeat was Torani.

Anyway, folks - you owe it to yourselves to try it (as close to) canonically specified as possible.

I'll have to track down the Marie Brizard (anyone in SoCal know where to find this?) and Rhum St James for the "Ultimate" Mai Tai, one of these days.

What an incredibly educational experience this has been. I've become a great deal more enlightened into the subtle art+science behind mixology.

By the way... if anyone else has been bitten by (Tiki-Ti) Mike's "Great White Shark", my goodness... it's so damned good. I think it's a poster-drink for why Rum is truly the drink of Satan.

Aloha Oe,
=Kukoae=

kukoae
did u try Hi-Time Wine (Hitimewine.com) in costa mesa. I was there last week and they had those items u were looking for.
Aloha

You're in the valley? I believe that there is still a Vendome in the valley. I believe it is in Studio City, although I am not sure exactly where. Vendome stocks TV's rock candy syrup as well as Marie Brizard and the St. James rum. There is another Vendome in Beverly Hills on Olympic. Olympic and Pine, I think it is. If you want to go a bit farther, Beverage Wherehouse in Mar Vista stocks all this stuff, too. You can also get Vic's orgeat at these places, which is better than the Torani.

Why use key limes? Regular old every day cheap and easy to get Mexican limes will give you enough juice from just one lime.

You're in the valley? I believe that there is still a Vendome in the valley. I believe it is in Studio City, although I am not sure exactly where.

AH! I do! I do! It's been Vineland and Colfax, and I probably drive by it every other day.

Awesome. I forgot that place stocked alot of unusual stuff. Beautiful. On my "coffee run" today, I shall redress some holes in my collection.

THANK YOU
=Kukoae=