Mai Tai

Mai Tai
IBA official cocktail
Type Cocktail
Primary alcohol by volume
Served On the rocks; poured over ice
Standard garnish pineapple spear, mint leaves and lime shell
Standard drinkware Old Fashioned glass
IBA specified
ingredientsdagger
Preparation Shake all ingredients with ice. Strain into glass. Garnish and serve with straw.
dagger Mai Tai recipe at International Bartenders Association

The Mai Tai is a cocktail based on rum, Curaçao liqueur, orgeat syrup, and lime juice, associated with Polynesian-style settings.

"Maita'i" is the Tahitian word for "good"; but the drink is spelled as two words, sometimes hyphenated or capitalized.[1][2]

History

Victor J. Bergeron claimed to have invented the Mai Tai in 1944 at his restaurant, Trader Vic's, in Oakland, California.[3] Trader Vic's rival, Don the Beachcomber, claimed to have created it in 1933 at his then-new bar named for himself (later a famous restaurant) in Hollywood. Don the Beachcomber's recipe is more complex than that of Vic's and tastes quite different.[4]

Recipe

Most current recipes for Mai Tais based on Trader Vic's 1944 recipe include rum, lime juice, orgeat syrup, and orange liqueur (typically orange curaçao). Variants may include orange and grapefruit juices, bitters, grenadine, falernum, and so on. Various books from Victor Bergeron described using rum from Jamaica as well as from Martinique, which in modern usage is a Rhum Agricole. As noted in Smuggler's Cove from Martin Cate and Rebecca Cate, the Martinique rums used by Bergeron in the 1950s were most certainly not agricole rums.[5]

Name Ingredients Method Glass Garnish
Mai Tai 60 ml Jamaican and Martinique Rums

25 ml Fresh Lime Juice

15 ml Orange Curaçao

15 ml Orgeat

3-4 Crushed Ice Cubes

 Shaken Rock Glass Spent lime shell and mint sprig

Culture

The Mai Tai became such a popular cocktail in the 1950s–60s that many restaurants, particularly tiki-themed restaurants or bars, served them. The Mai Tai was also prominently featured in the Elvis Presley film Blue Hawaii.

Today, the Mai Tai is synonymous with Tiki culture both past and present.

As of 2008, Trader Vic's Restaurant chain began to open small establishments called Mai Tai Bars that primarily serve cocktails and pupus (appetizers).

References

  1. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, s.v. mai tai
  2. ↑ "maitai", Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
  3. ↑ "The Origin of the Mai Tai", , tradervics.com via archive.org
  4. ↑ Coulombe, Charles A. (2005). Rum: The Epic Story of the Drink That Conquered the World. Citadel Press. p. 258.
  5. ↑ Cate, Martin (2016). Smuggler's Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press. p. 264. ISBN 978-1-60774-732-1.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.