This is for all you cocktail drinkers out there who think that a Mai Tai is some sort of kiddy drink abomination, or as the execrable website, drinkstv.com, puts it: 1.5 oz. rum, 1.5 oz. dark rum, 1 oz. apricot brandy (what?), 1 oz. grenadine syrup and 2 oz. orange-pineapple juice.
People, that ain't a Mai Tai.
A true Mai Tai is much like what guest bartender Angus Winchester fixed for me and about thirty or forty others late last month at an Appleton rum event. Except that this particular drink featured the original, 17 year old J. Wray & Nephew Rum with which Victor "Trader Vic" Bergeron concocted the world's first Mai Tai in 1944. If you pick up the 2008 copy of the Guinness Book of World Records, look for the listing of the World's Most Expensive Cocktail - it's that exact Mai Tai, as sold for £750 at The Merchant Hotel in Belfast.
And I didn't even have to tip!
But since it's highly unlikely that you or I will ever again see that rum, here's a recipe for a Mai Tai that will be almost as good, as seen in the drink maker's bible, The Craft of the Cocktail, by the great Dale "King Cocktail" DeGroff. Note the absence of orange-pineapple juice . . .
Mai Tai
2 ounces aged rum (use a fruity variety like Appleton Extra or Reserve)
3/4 ounce orange curacao
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice (do not use cordial or bar mix, please!)
1/4 ounce orgeat (an almond syrup made with orange flower water)
2 mint sprigs for garnish
1 lime wedge for garnish
Shake all the ingredients (except the garnishes) with ice and strain into an old-fashioned glass filled with ice. Garnish and serve.
We're very interested in your news, notes, comments and questions, so please feel free to contact SBWoB by clicking on the link below. Or you can add your comments when you sign up for the World of Beer Update, a mid-month e-mail newsletter that brings even more of the world of beer to your computer.
