Mai Tai
Trader Vic’s Original 1944 Mai Tai
City/Region: United States of America
Time Period: 1944
The original Mai Tai recipe really lets the rum shine, as opposed to modern versions that have a lot of competing flavors. Victor Bergeron, proprietor of Trader Vic’s, made the first Mai Tai using Wray & Nephew 17 Year Rum until the world ran out of it, then eventually used a mix of aged Jamaican rum and Rhum Agricole, which is what we’re using in this recipe.
Quite unlike most you’d get today, the only juice in the original Mai Tai from Trader Vic’s in 1944 is lime juice, and there’s no dark rum float on top. It’s basically a Hawaiian vacation in a glass, and is now my favorite version of the Mai Tai. (Don’t get me wrong, I love a modern Mai Tai, but I highly recommend trying this version out.)
“2 ounces Wray & Nephew 17-Year Jamaican rum
½ ounce orange curaçao
½ ounce orgeat syrup
¼ ounce white sugar syrup
Juice of one lime
Shake well with plenty of crushed ice. Pour unstrained into a double Old Fashioned glass. Sink your spent lime shell into drink. Garnish with a mint sprig.”
Ingredients:
- 1 ounce dark Jamaican rum*, I used Appleton Estate 12 year
- 1 ounce Rhum Agricole*, I used Kuleana’s Rhum Agricole
- 1/2 ounce orange curaçao*, used Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaça
- 1/2 ounce orgeat syrup*, I used Liber & Co Orgeat Syrup
- 1/4 ounce simple syrup
- Juice of 1 lime, about 1 ounce
*See notes below.
Instructions:
- Measure all ingredients into a shaker and shake with crushed ice. Pour everything into a glass, preferably an old fashioned glass, and sink the lime shell into it (if there’s room in the glass). Garnish with a sprig of mint, and serve it forth.
Notes
- You can find all of the liquors and the orgeat syrup I used in my curated collection at Curiada. There's even a Mai Tai set that has all 4 bottles.
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