Mai-Tai
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Ingredients
- 2ounces rum
- 1ounce lime juice
- ½ ounce orange Curaçao
- ½ ounce orgeat
- Mint sprig, for garnish
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Preparation
- Step 1
Shake all liquid ingredients with ice. Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice. Garnish with a mint sprig.
Private Notes
Comments
The rum is key. The traditional choice (what Trader Vic used when he created it) is a good, aged Jamaican rum. I recommend Appleton (any), Hamilton, Coruba, Mezan, Plantation Xaymaca, or (use slightly less of) Doctor Bird or Smith & Cross. Denizen Merchant's Reserve is a beautiful rum that was formulated to emulate the rums Trader Vic was using in the '50s. Myers's works if it's your only option. For your orgeat, buy a nice bottle without corn syrup or almond flavorings.
For the orgeat, it's well worth it to buy a nice one without corn syrup or a bunch of flavorings—a lot of the bigger brands/bottles tend to overpower whatever they're used in. If that's all you've got, start with just a teaspoon of orgeat and two teaspoons of simple syrup. Mr. Meehan has simplified this recipe to suit a delicate orgeat; others (including Trader Vic's original recipe) call for ¼ oz each of orgeat and simple syrup. Garnish with a mint sprig and spent lime shell.
An excellent, basic Mai Tai without all the tourist-y fruit juices and garnishes. Prefer Denizen Merchant Reserve 8 yr Rum with this.
Our go-to orgeat brand is Liber & Co.
This was way too lime-y for me. I see there’s another recipe here that’s actually identical except it asks for “juice of one lime” which is about what 1 oz (as called for here) is, and various people responded with “too much lime!” I lean away from sweet so didn’t use syrup, but next time I might try 1/2 oz lime juice and maybe 1/2 oz syrup or maybe orange juice and see how that goes. Generally though I love and appreciate Jim’s recipes!
I found this perfect. Used 1 oz dark rum, 1 oz light rum, and Pierre Ferrand dry curaçao. Brought Hawai’i home to Boston for a night!
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