does anybody make their mai tai's with key lime?

tried this over the weekend. used literally "the juice of one lime," which for a key lime amounted to about 1/4 ounce. loved it. seemed a more balanced drink to me than chucking in 3/4 or 1 ounce of persian lime juice.

I once hand squeezed an entire bag of key limes, freezing them into 1/4 oz ice cubes for later use in cocktails. Made my hands sore, but they sure are tasty!

I use Key limes unless only Persian limes are available.

When the Trader began making Mai Tais, his recipe called for the juice of one lime. The juice of one Persian lime is way too much, whereas that of the Key lime is just right. Given the history and distribution of both kinds of lime, it is possible that Key limes were predominately used during his day. Otherwise, I would suspect he would have specified which lime to use in his formula (i.e., half of one Persian lime).

The juice of one Key Lime, ripe - which means it is very yellow- provides 3/4 oz of lime. And the drink is superb. The difference for me is that I have my own key lime tree and I can wait till the limes are yellow before I harvest them.

They are unbelievable and a rare treat.

Absolutely! The standard Mai Tai recipes is way too sour to taste the most excellent rums you are using. And, it is perhaps the correct way to make it as noted above. The juice of one lime, that lime being a Key lime.

A nice ripe key lime is a thing of joy in a cocktail.

Sadly even here in Florida 'ripe' key limes are hard to find. Everyone seems convinced that limes are supposed to be green which is not true of key limes. A ripe key lime is yellow heading for orange and when truly ripe is wonderfully tart with just enough sweet to keep it from being bitter.

As to key lime juice in a Mai Tai.... No. Not usually.

Most key limes you find in markets are horribly under-ripe and border on the bitter. Add to that you can get a scant quarter ounce out of one and fully three quarters out of the next; its too random to make a good, and consistent, cocktail that way.

You can use key lime if you want too, and if you can get good key limes you should! but even with the 'Juice of one lime' measure if you want to be able to repeat your drink tomorrow or the next day, or the next, you need to measure it down to some quantity and then test your juice from each lime for sweet/tart/bitter.

Well put chipandandy. When my limes are not quite in season, perhaps a little early or late, I sometimes use two limes to get to my 3/4 oz. But non the less, the juice is a thing of joy, in mai tail or margaritas. I use persian limes when I must, and unfortuantely that is about 6 months out of the year - my tree has two seasons a year that it produces.

Sometimes I even freeze the juice.

For people who haven't tried tree ripen key limes - yellow that is - you can't even imagine. You simply can't.

they do have a marvelous fragrance.

It goes w/o saying that bottled Key Lime juice is a very pale imitation of "the real thing."

I have on occasion used Key Lime juice but, sadly, not from fresh Key Limes (For the very reasons stated by Chip & Andy), so I use Nellie and Joe's Key Lime juice - but only 1 oz.

I truly do wish everyone had a tree of their own to enjoy their own fresh key limes,... or oranges, lemons, and grapefruit for that matter. I feel fortunate that they are an arm's reach away in my backyard.

an ounce of Nelly and Joe's in a mai tai? wow! isn't that brand double concentrated to begin with?

Just wanted to backup the fabulous Chip'n'Andy : All limes are "yellow," not just key limes. Green Limes are not "ripe."

Quotes used because citrus doesn't 'ripen' as you think of "ripeness." -- like Pineapple, there is a point in the degradation after picking that we find has the peak of flavor.

Given the extremely high volume that the Trader locations were doing back in the day, I wonder if he would have had access to very large volumes of well ripened key limes? Also, it would be helpful to know what variety of limes were available from produce wholesalers in the post-war period (roughly 1945-50).

pretty sure persian limes werent widely available until post war. if im not mistaken, key limes were also known as "barmen's limes" and "mexican limes" (ironic as pretty much all our persian limes today seem to come fro mexico).

On 2011-03-04 09:22, thePorpoise wrote:
pretty sure persian limes werent widely available until post war. if im not mistaken, key limes were also known as "barmen's limes" and "mexican limes" (ironic as pretty much all our persian limes today seem to come fro mexico).

Persian Limes and some of their fruit related cousins were more available in California in the 'early days.' Key Limes were common, but much more so on the Eastern Seaboard. There was a greater chance of your Daiquiri's and other Caribbean-Genesis cocktails being made with key limes when compared to drinks invented by bartenders on the Pacific Rim and then mostly because of availability.

As to what the Trader used when he invented the Mai Tai..., someone go ask him.

My bottle of Nellie and Joe's Key Lime juice says nothing about "double concentrated", just that it is made from Key Lime concentrate. For my taste, one oz works well in a Mai Tai.

As re. "regular" limes, try to find those which are the palest possible green. The flavor will be far better developed and they will have far more juice. (It'd be fun to do a compare & contrast...)

On 2011-03-05 07:34, jokeiii wrote:
As re. "regular" limes, try to find those which are the palest possible green. The flavor will be far better developed and they will have far more juice. (It'd be fun to do a compare & contrast...)

Also, look for the citrus with the thinnest peel to use for juicing. Thick skinned citrus makes for better eating fruit, while thin skinned fruit generally has more juice.