The Mai Tai was mixed in 1944 by Victor Bergeron, the restaurateur known as Trader Vic, at his bar in Oakland, California. For a pair of visiting friends from Tahiti he reached for a prized bottle of 17-year-old Wray & Nephew Jamaican rum, balanced it with fresh lime, orange curacao, rock candy syrup, and French orgeat, and shook it over shaved ice. One of his guests took a sip and exclaimed Maita'i roa ae — Tahitian for out of this world — and Bergeron had both a drink and a name. When his cocktails landed on the menus of Hawaii's tourist hotels in the 1950s, the Mai Tai became forever fused with the islands, even though it was born on the mainland.
A big, aromatic hit of aged rum lifted by tart lime and rounded out by the soft marzipan sweetness of orgeat, with orange curacao adding a bittersweet edge. Over crushed ice it drinks cold and almost frothy, dangerously easy despite the spirit-forward backbone.
Hard shaking over crushed ice does two things at once: it chills and dilutes the strong rum to a drinkable strength, and it whips a fine froth into the orgeat, whose almond emulsion gives the drink its silky, lightly creamy body. Building the cocktail over more crushed ice keeps it cold and slowly opens the rum as it melts.
Variations
The original 1944 Trader Vic build (rum, lime, curacao, orgeat, rock candy syrup); the sweeter Hawaiian resort version that took hold in the 1950s, built on pineapple and orange juice; two-rum versions with a dark rum float; frozen blended Mai Tais common at resort bars.
On the Palate
Where Mai Tai sits in the Hawaiian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 1How it's made
8 steps · 5 min
- 11 min
Add the aged dark rum, fresh lime juice, orange curacao, and orgeat to a cocktail shaker.
- 21 min
Squeeze in the lime and drop the spent shell into the shaker for extra oil and aroma.
- 31 min
Fill the shaker with crushed or shaved ice.
- 41 min
Shake hard for about 10 to 15 seconds until the tin is frosted and the drink is well chilled.
Watch outShake hard until the tin frosts over and aches to hold — that's your sign it's cold and diluted enough; a lazy shake leaves it hot and boozy.
- 51 min
Pour the whole thing, ice and all, into a double old-fashioned glass.
- 61 min
Top with a little more crushed ice to fill the glass to the rim.
- 71 min
Float a teaspoon of dark rum over the top if you want a richer first sip.
Watch outPour the dark-rum float gently over the back of a spoon so it sits on top as a ribbon instead of sinking in — that dark cap gives the first sip its punch.
- 81 min
Garnish with the lime shell and a sprig of fresh mint, and serve with a straw.
