Howdy folks,

While on my way to a cook out the other day, I stopped in thier local liqour store to check out the rum selection. I found they were stocking various Trader Vic's rums. Seeing that, I thought they must have the mixers, but didn't find any. What I did find was Trader Vic's "Pre-Mixed" Mai Tai Cocktail. So I bought it to bring to the cook out.

I have to say it was pretty good. Nice taste for a quick drink. Has anybody else tried this? I never knew it existed and may take the drive back to pick up a few more bottles for emergencies.. LOL

Cheers!

Rick

It's not bad, better if you have fresh lime juice and a little grenadine syrup float.

Rex

The way I look at it, if you have to squeeze limes and put two rums in it anyways, why not go whole hog and mix orange curacao, orgeat, and simple syrup instead? That being said, I have a couple of the "restaurant only" bottles of the concentrate stashed...to me it doesn't save any time.

On 2008-07-04 21:35, rexster314 wrote:
... and a little grenadine ....

Rex

TROLL!!

No need to add ANY syrup to the premixed mai tai. It is pretty syrupy and sweet already. I little lime might help, plus I often float a little darm rum in it too. It's not bad as is though, just don't expect anything like what you would get at a restaurant.

all the high-fructose corn syrup gives some of the pre-made mixers a sickly taste. I try to avoid it in all my cocktail ingredients whenever possible... unfortunately there are some things, like passionfruit syrup, which seem to all have it. Cane sugar has a much better taste... rounder and smoother. Corn syrup almost tastes metallic to me sometimes.

On 2008-07-05 21:36, Chinarose wrote:
all the high-fructose corn syrup gives some of the pre-made mixers a sickly taste. I try to avoid it in all my cocktail ingredients whenever possible... unfortunately there are some things, like passionfruit syrup, which seem to all have it.

Look at this thread for how to have Passionfruit Syrup w/o HFCs...

Thank you, Haole'akamai! I'm going to try it

A friend of mine, who loves the traditional Trader Vic's Mai Tai's, bought a bottle of this for us to try, because he couldn't find any orgeat at any of the liquor stores around his house in south San Jose. He was really jonesing for a mai tai, and handed me this mixer to whip some up. I was extremely dubious at first, but since there was no Cactus Cooler or Malibu Coconut Rum at his place, (that's a joke, folks), I had to make do with this pre-made mix.

Upon opening it, I was pleasantly surprised that it had a great nose, and smelled pretty much dead on like a Trader Vic's Mai Tai, without the rum or lime. It had a consistency that was slightly thinner than regular orgeat. I was impressed, and tried a taste of the mix straight. It did taste like orange and almond, but not quite as flavorful as a real Trader Vic' Mai Tai.

So I poured us a round, and we tried it out in the drink. I added fresh lime, and used Appleton VX. The taste was decent, although a little on the weak side for a Mai Tai. I increased the amount of mix for the next round, and the taste improved, but still not as good as a real Trader Vic's Mai Tai.

I drank three of these, maybe four - a light evening of imbibing for me. And I woke up with the worst headache the next day! Not so much a hangover, but more along the lines of an allergy headache. It lasted for quite a while. I know it wasn't from the rum, because I use Appleton VX in my mai tais all the time, and we even used Appleton Extra for a round or two.

So my evaluation is that although the smell and the taste do indeed come close to a real Trader Vic's Mai Tai, it is still not quite as good. And the amount of corn syrup and preservatives are the biggest strike against it, especially if you have allergy problems to preservatives. Also, when you think about it, you are not getting any real Orange Curacao in your drink if you use this mix, and that's one less liqueur that should not be left out in my opinion. This is a simple drink to make from scratch, and there is no substitute for fresh ingredients! Anyways, that's my two cents, your mileage may vary.

I was looking online for the ingredients for that stuff and just ended up finding it in another thread, compliments of Shipwreck Joey:

water
high fructose corn syrup
natural flavors (?)
citric acid (E330)
sodium benzoate (E211)
xantham (E415)
artificial carmel color (E150d)

If you think an "impure" booze can give you a rockin', bowling-ball-in-the-head hangover, then mix any FINE rum with this toxic, chemically modified sludge, and you're going to get the same effect. I've also tried this stuff, and it smelled/tasted like a Mai Tai, but as Mai Tai mentioned, a little weaker, but with a heavy hint of HFC and formaldehyde. Pre-mixes are good for whipping out a cocktail in a pinch(for people who don't care what they're ingesting), but to me, the consequences are not worth it. I've tried other Mai Tai mixes as well, like "Mr & Mrs Ts" and "On the House", and they are even worse on the level that the Trader Vics at least got the flavor and aroma right. The ingredients on the other two mixers were even more artificial than the Trader Vics. Spend the money on the real stuff and wow your friends. The goal here is to destroy the liver, not the pancreas, gall bladder, kidneys, nervous system, and soul!

View my work @

http://www.myspace.com/sandiegotikicarvers

[ Edited by: Billy the Crud 2008-07-06 12:46 ]

Don't know why you call me that.
I've bought this stuff for the last 3-4 years, and the stuff needs a little lightening up. If that's a troll post, then too bad for you. This is they way I fix it. Agreed, it's not the best stuff in the world, and certainly can't beat a homemade mai tai, it will get you by in a pinch.

Rex

On 2008-07-05 00:24, Hakalugi wrote:

On 2008-07-04 21:35, rexster314 wrote:
... and a little grenadine ....

Rex

TROLL!!

[ Edited by: rexster314 2008-07-06 13:00 ]

Maybe the Bum can answer this. What did Don the Beachcomber use? Would it have had Corn Syrup. I am sure that using passion fruit juice or puree and sugar might have an authentic passion fruit taste, but I am curious what the original drinks used.

Would you happen to be talking about this stuff?

I had a completely different experience a few weeks back. We were in Maui and were utterly disappointed in the Mai Tais there. Couldn't find a good one anywhere. The more expensive they were, the crappier they tasted (what is it with Maui and passion fruit based Mai Tais?). Granted we didn't venture too far off the beaten path, but still. We've been to all the tourist traps on Oahu and still found respectable Mai Tais almost everywhere....but I digress.

In an act of desperation, we found the above mix in an ABC store in Whaler's Village and decided to give it a shot in our hotel room. After one taste, we basically poured the rest down the drain it was so bad. Maybe we got a bad batch but it tasted like sugar syrup with a hint of some sort of fruit juice. No rum taste, no orgeat, no nuthin'. Not trying to rain on anyone's parade....just wanted to share and to see if it was the same stuff.

On 2008-07-06 12:59, rexster314 wrote:
Don't know why you call me that.
I've bought this stuff for the last 3-4 years, and the stuff needs a little lightening up. If that's a troll post, then too bad for you. This is they way I fix it. Agreed, it's not the best stuff in the world, and certainly can't beat a homemade mai tai, it will get you by in a pinch.

Rex

On 2008-07-05 00:24, Hakalugi wrote:

On 2008-07-04 21:35, rexster314 wrote:
... and a little grenadine ....

Rex

TROLL!!

[ Edited by: rexster314 2008-07-06 13:00 ]

Putting grenadine in a Mai Tai (or what's supposed to be a Mai Tai)is considered a form of blasphemy here on TC. So yes, your comment about adding grenadine is (by me) considered a troll post.
I can tell that you were offended and for that I deeply apologize. After carefully re-reading my post, I can see now that I should have added a smiley to it as all the post was really meant to do was raise a chuckle. Sorry you didn't get it.

However. it is true that those premixed TV bottled Mai Tai's need a lot of help.