A Mai Tai is rum, lime, orange curacao and orgeat — and nothing else. No pineapple, no orange juice, no grenadine. Trader Vic built it in 1944 to show off a rum, not to hide one, and that is still the point of it.
Ingredients:
- 2 oz (60 mL) Bombarda Culverin or Drake
- 3/4 oz (22.5 mL) orange curacao
- 1 oz (30 mL) fresh lime juice
- 1/2 oz (15 mL) orgeat
- Lime wheel and a mint sprig, to garnish
Method of Attack:
- Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker.
- Shake hard with ice until well chilled.
- Strain over fresh crushed ice into a double old fashioned glass.
- Garnish with a lime wheel and a mint sprig. Spent lime shell in the glass, if you want it done properly.
About This Recipe:
Victor Bergeron built the first Mai Tai in 1944 at his Oakland bar, using a 17-year J. Wray and Nephew Jamaican rum. He handed it to two friends visiting from Tahiti; one of them said maita'i roa a'e — out of this world, the best — and the drink had its name.
That original rum has not existed for decades, which is why every modern Mai Tai is a reconstruction. Ours adapts Vic's 1944 build by raising the curacao in place of the rock candy syrup, a 2:1 rich simple syrup he used alongside it.
Everything else people put in Mai Tais — pineapple juice, orange juice, grenadine — arrived later, from hotel bars cutting cost and rum. That is where the drink's reputation went.
Why this rum:
The Mai Tai is essentially a rum sour with two sweeteners: curacao and orgeat. The sugar budget is spent before the spirit arrives, and a sweetened rum tips it over — you lose the almond in the orgeat and the lime stops cutting.
Culverin is dry and peppery, which keeps the drink in balance. Drake carries Jamaican rum in the blend, which is the funky, molasses-rich character people recognise as tasting like a Mai Tai. Neither has added sugar, caramel colorant or chill filtration.
For the two-rum version, build on Falconet Midnight and float half an ounce of Revenge on top.
Battle Notes:
Orgeat is not optional. It is the almond syrup that makes a Mai Tai taste like a Mai Tai — without it you have a rum sour with curacao in it. Buy a good one or make it.
Full breakdown in our guide to the best rum for a Mai Tai.
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