Now this one blows my mind. Trader Vic’s is credited by many with inventing the drink. Others say it was created a decade before at the Beachcomber. Trader Vic’s Bartender Guide 1947 does not even list it. Advantage Beachcomber. In talking with Bobby Gleason, Master Mixologist for Beam Suntory, he uses the Mai Tai as an example of how the game of cocktail telephone worked. One patron walks into a bar in a period when documentation was scarce, and requested a drink. Bartender does know the drink. Patron only knows it was fruity and had rum. Bartender takes a stab at it. If patron likes it then that becomes how that bar makes a Mai Tai, which explains how so many bad versions proliferated around the country.
If you go to one of the modern Tiki bars that are springing up around the country like Frankie’s Tiki Lounge in Las Vegas you can get an amazing version, but if you want to know what tradition they go from here is how you can tell. Don the Beachcomber version includes Angostura Bitters which gives its version of the Mai Tai a reddish tone. The Trader Vic’s official version should have no red notes. I admit the Beachcomber version is probably the original, but I am including the my version of the Trader Vic’s recipe because the flavors are closer to what I want personally when I want a tiki drink. I will also include the Beachcomber version in its own recipe so you can decide for yourself.
Ingredients
1 1/2 oz Aged Jamaican rum (The IBA recipe calls for 2 parts white rum and 1 part aged rum, which the Beachcomber version has both rums included. I recommend Havana Club if you can find it or Brugal Añejo from The Dominican Republic)
1 oz Lime Juice
1/4 ounce curaçao
1/4 ounce orgeat
1/4 ounce velvet falernum
Garnish
Orange wheel and a cherry.
Glassware
12 oz tumbler
Assembly
Fill a shaker with ice. Measure lime juice, falernum, orgeat, curaçao and rum and add to shaker. Shake until cold and strain into tumbler filled with crushed ice. Garnish.
Suggestions
You can get tiki glasses from lots of sources, but the most inexpensive is going to be your local restaurant supply. They usually have great deals on broken cases and you can find some really cool models.