Mai-Tai's en masse

Hey everyone,
I don't want to get stuck behind the bar measuring out Mai-Tai's one at a time. So, does anyone have a good method or recipe for making up a lot of Mai-Tai's for a party?
Aloha,
:tiki:

Tiki Royale,
This is exactly what I have been trying to figure out. I have a friend who used to own a Chinese restaurant in Newburyport, but he won't reveal his secret because he still makes the mix for the bar that he owns now. He actually makes the pre-mix down in the basement of the restaurant. They actually taste pretty good, too! I have watched the bartender at the Hawaiian Isle in Plaistow, NH make the maitai pre-mix behind the bar. They start by using a rinsed out bottle of Fee's orgeat syrup. He poured a whole bottle of bols orange curacao into it and then filled the rest with orgeat syrup. When you order one they take a double old fashioned glass and fill it with crushed ice. Then they add light and dark rum, the pre-mix, timmy's sour mix, and a quarter of a lime, squeezed. Then he will just shake it up. I have tried duplicating this at home, but for some reason I cannot get them to taste exactly the same. Perhaps someone will know exactly how to do this!

It's more expensive, but one safe route; Trader Vics mai tai mix with (only) fresh limes.

In one bottle: fresh lime juice

In another bottle: orgeat, orange curacao, and simple syrup in correct proportions.

In a third bottle: aged Jamaican and aged martinique in equal proportions.

Take 1-1.5 oz of bottle 1, 1 oz of bottle 2, and 2 oz of bottle three.

It works pretty darn well. Any leftover rum combo will have to be consumed in mai tais.

Thanks Martin.
I was contemplating making a "Giant" Mai-Tai. Maybe using a cup instead of an ounce to measure and mixing everything in a big jug and then just pouring over ice as needed. Might this work or would it be a "Giant" mess?
Aloha,
:tiki:

If it's just going to be premixed and cold in a jar and poured over ice, you'll want to add a little water to the mix to simulate the water that would be added to it in a shaker with ice. Otherwise, it will taste a little "concentrated".

On 2004-05-11 08:35, martiki wrote:

In another bottle: orgeat, orange curacao, and simple syrup in correct proportions.

Would you share the correct proportions ?

On 2004-05-10 20:37, Unga Bunga wrote:
It's more expensive, but one safe route; Trader Vics mai tai mix with (only) fresh limes.

I agree. For making a large batch, you can't go wrong here.

On 2004-05-12 12:03, boingo wrote:

On 2004-05-11 08:35, martiki wrote:

In another bottle: orgeat, orange curacao, and simple syrup in correct proportions.

Would you share the correct proportions ?

generally .5 oz orange curacao, .25 oz simple syrup, .25 oz orgeat.

On 2004-05-11 08:35, martiki wrote:
In one bottle: fresh lime juice

In another bottle: orgeat, orange curacao, and simple syrup in correct proportions.

In a third bottle: aged Jamaican and aged martinique in equal proportions.

Take 1-1.5 oz of bottle 1, 1 oz of bottle 2, and 2 oz of bottle three.

It works pretty darn well. Any leftover rum combo will have to be consumed in mai tais.

What's the key to mixing the rums separately from the orgeat mix?

Assuming that is just to minimize the potential for wasting good rum if you don't go through the whole batch of premixed cocktail during whatever event you are serving it up for.

Right. And you definitely don't want to mix in the lime until you're ready to serve. Juice goes off fast.

You should be able to dump everything together right before the party, I would let the liquor / rum (VSOP and V/X and Curacao) sit overnight to "blend" in the serving pitcher - 2 bottles each rum and 1 orange curacao

About 2 hours ahead of time I would do the lime juice and then add the orgeat - do not add ice to the mixture

Have a ice chest with bags of Sonic Ice in it for guests to fill their glass with ice, while the serving container sits at room temp, and that will give you the dilution you are looking for

Have mint sprigs in a cup for guests to add

Very easy to do, I would use Small Hand Foods Orgeat and use .5 in place of the simple

A good friend has the theory that lime does not scale up well, and after many an experiment, I agree with him. If you do make a "batch of Mai Tais" hold back on what would be considered the full amount of lime, say about 75% of what would be otherwise called for. Taste the result. At that point you can adjust your lime upward, if needed, without ruining a whole batch of Mai Tais by over-liming.

Also, as Martin mentioned, if you don't or can't shake the batches, adding a touch of water compensates for the unstated ingredient of every drink shaken with ice. I have a bottle at the bar labeled "Melt" for these batch mixing occasions.

Oh! my bad. I thought the title of this post said Mai Tai’s in mass.I was changing my plans for Sunday morning.
Cheers

I agree with Dr C --- there's what I call a "terminal velocity" rule with lime: the more you multiply the number of drinks you produce in one batch, the more you have to scale back on the lime. I wish I had the magic formula for lime saturation, but since I hate to make drinks for more than 4 people at a time that won't likely happen anytime soon.