The infamous Mai Tai court case

Does anyone know anything about the infamous court case in 1970 that supposedly settled the argument of who invented Mai Tai? All I can find is people citing that it happened and that Vic won, but I can't find any details on it. It almost feels like an urban legend.

when i search "mai tai" i'm only getting links to cases involving sexual harassment, or dui...

It was settled out of court, besides, anyone who doesn't believe that Trader Vic invented the Mai Tai is a dirty stinker!

I couldn't find anything on an out of court settlement either. Only that Yul Brenner settled out of court in the 70s after he sued TV's for getting trichinosis from the spare ribs!

Vic may have invented it (by stealing Donn's recipe) but Don The Beachcomber's Mai Tai tastes better. :)

Ahhhh, fightin' words! :)

DTB served a drink at one time called a Mai Tai -- but it was nothing like the one Vic served. DTB also served a drink called the QB Cooler that tasted kinda like a Mai Tai -- but had completely different ingredients.

So although DTB liked to claim he invented it, there's really no reason to think he actually did.

The Zombie, on the other hand, was all Don's.

Semantics, I think. Donn did invent the Mai Tai in 1933, but in name only. His claim was technically accurate.

But that early Donn Beach cocktail was no longer on the menu within a few short years. A claim that that early drink that happened to have 'Mai Tai' in the name had anything to do with the original TV Mai Tai is very tenuous.

My understanding (from Sippin Safari & Beachbum Berry Remixed) is:

Sun-Vac Corporation licenced the Don the Beachcomber name to put on their premixes, including a Mai Tai one. In 1970 Vic sued them & they settled out of court.

Hope that helps begin to answer your question TikiTacky!

Regarding the similarity of the Mai Tai Swizzle (1933), QB Cooler (1937) & & Mai Tai (1944):

Beachbum Berry Remixed says it best, regardless of anything else, Trader Vics recipe is *** the mai tai*** ~ it's the one that made the name famous.

It's been a while since I compared them, in order of preference, my Tiki+ app notes for the 3 say:

1 - Mai Tai - good, dependant on the rums ~ play around.
2 - Mai Tai Swizzle - Ok, like a fruitier sort of Mai Tai.
3 - QB Cooler - Ok, could be further tweaked.

IMO comparing the 3 is a bit like comparing a diaquiri / caprihna / ti punch or Pina Colada / Painkiller / Coconut - i.e. they have similarities & similar ingredients but they are different - try them all & then have what you fancy! :)

Plus Donn's drink was named the Mai Tai Swizzle. Trader Vic's Mai Tai has completely different ingredients, tastes very different (and far better), is not swizzled and was born 10 years and 650 miles from Donn Beach's failed cocktail.

If anyone really thinks Trader Vic was in the habit of copying Donn's drinks make the Zombie recipe printed in the Trader Vic 1944 Life Magazine article. It tastes nothing like Donn's Zombies (any variation) and is the worst Zombie I've ever had. Besides the Zombie, do you see any other Donn the Beachcomber drinks on Trader Vic's menu?

Donn's Mai Tai Swizzle lasted only a short while on his menu and was not popular. Of the 70 plus drinks Donn created it may be that the QB Cooler tastes closest to a Trader Vic Mai Tai, just chance. If you've had any experience making hundreds of cocktail recipes you will always encounter similarities between them. There is no doubt that Trader Vic created the Mai Tai that took the world by storm. It's simpler and tastes far better than either the Mai Tai Swizzle or the QB Cooler. That Donn would try to lay claim to that Mai Tai is just sad.

[ Edited by: TropicDrinkBoy 2013-10-03 14:50 ]

On 2013-10-03 14:48, TropicDrinkBoy wrote:
Besides the Zombie, do you see any other Donn the Beachcomber drinks on Trader Vic's menu?

I've seen different Navy Grog recipes credited to Don & Vic ~ Dons version contains honey mix, Vics version contains pimento dram?

Winner! That's the only other one. I was just testing you! Ha ha!

The more pertinent question is "Did Trader Vic ever claim to have created the Navy Grog?" Instead of making unfounded claims he heaped accolades on Donn Beach in his "Ode to Rum" (on the back of his vintage cocktail menus) and even wrote in his autobiography of buying some decor from him. The Trader gave credit where credit was due so you can be sure when he says he created the Mai Tai that it was his own creation.

[ Edited by: TropicDrinkBoy 2013-10-03 17:13 ]

Wasn't the Mai Tai lawsuit during a period where Donn was already forced out of the stateside DTBs by his ex-wife? Did the actual Donn have any involvement?

That's right. DTB hadn't owned the restaurants (except in Hawaii) since the 40's. Sunny was the boss.

Re Navy Grog:

On 2013-10-03 16:53, TropicDrinkBoy wrote:
Winner! That's the only other one. I was just testing you! Ha ha!

The more pertinent question is...

History is important but the more pertinent question when picking 2 drinks that are versions of one another is... which do you prefer?

Dons Navy Grog for me :)

or you could choose both:

yeoman's grog = mash-up of the donn's and the vic's versions...

Or . . . you can go with a Gill-Man Grog, combining the best of Donn, Vic, the Mai-Kai and the Captain's Inn Grog offerings.

I hear the guy who made this drink is totally awesome. :)

Beautiful drink porn Sunny&Rummy!

This thread is getting pretty far off topic though so my last post on the subject of the Mai Tai court case comes verbatim from Trader Vic himself. As found in his last published work, the 1976 "Trader Vic's Helluva Man's Cookbook", the Trader didn't pull any punches:

"I've said this a million times. We originated this drink; we made the first Mai Tai; we named the drink. A lot of bastards all over the country have copied it and copyrighted it and claimed it for their own. I hope they get the pox. They're a bunch of lousy bastards for copying my drink."

Well said Trader!

The pertinent point here is the licensing agreement with Don. That is why there was a court case. Not because Don didn't like being a stinker, but because he'd made a deal with a company and they used the name Mai Tai in that deal and Vic didn't care for that. Pure business, not a demand of drink paternity.

Excellent point, Swanky. If the settlement was over the name, it may not have had anything to do with who invented it. Although I think Berry's research makes that fairly apparent.

Thanks for all the discussion!

It probably wasn't just because they used the name, they probably tried to copyright it (see Vic's quote above, which was published years after the case was settled) when they introduced their copycat product. Trader Vic had to defend his right to the name of his restaurant's signature drink and the interests of his food products company.

In preparation for the trial he did produce the testimony of his long time friend Carrie Guild from Tahiti who supposedly named it the night it was invented.

[ Edited by: TropicDrinkBoy 2013-10-07 15:24 ]

On 2013-10-07 15:16, TropicDrinkBoy wrote:
It probably wasn't just because they used the name, they probably tried to copyright it (see Vic's quote above, which was published years after the case was settled) when they introduced their copycat product. Trader Vic had to defend his right to the name of his restaurant's signature drink and the interests of his food products company.

In preparation for the trial he did produce the testimony of his long time friend Carrie Guild from Tahiti who supposedly named it the night it was invented.

[ Edited by: TropicDrinkBoy 2013-10-07 15:24 ]

Where are people getting this info? Was it in a book? Newspaper? Word of mouth? Dreams? :wink:

TikiTacky, it’s time to wake up and crack open your copy of “Tiki Style” to page 127 (also found in “The Book of Tiki”) where you will find the following sworn statement by Carrie Wright (previously Carrie Guild):

“I, too, hereby solemnly swear that on a summer night in 1944 Trader Vic served us a delightfully-flavored drink in an oversized glass filled with fine ice and asked us to suggest an appropriate Tahitian name.

One sip, and my natural reaction was to say ‘Mai Tai-Roa Ae’, which in Tahitian means ‘Out of this world – the best’ … Well, that was that! Vic named the drink ‘Mai Tai’.” It was signed “Carrie Wright”, Oakland-1970.

The entire page is devoted to the 1970 lawsuit against the Sun-Vac Corporation, and since sworn statements are typically submitted during legal proceedings one can surmise that was the purpose of this statement. On the same page you will also find a quaint picture of an elderly Trader Vic and Carrie in what may be the original Trader Vic location.

Finally, it is common practice when companies introduce new products to file trade mark or copyright applications so I wouldn’t be surprised if Sun-Vac did so when they introduced their Mai Tai product. If you read my post carefully you will see that I qualified it with “probably”. Since Trader Vic wrote in 1976 (reference supplied in my previous post) of his disgust of those who tried to copyright the Mai Tai, and since on this occasion he had to take legal action against Sun-Vac, it is likely that they did so.

Ah ha! Finally found it on page 169 (please, bigbrotiki, promise me your next book will have an index!). Thanks for the tip. No matter how many times I read this book, I find something I'd missed.