Liquor Nerd: Arguably the most popular of all Tiki drinks, the Mighty Mai Tai has a complicated but fascinating history

    1 of 3 2 of 3

      As every fan of dive bars, bathtub bourbon, and giving free drinks to hobos knows, there’s an official day for almost everything where liquor is concerned. Make up a short version of a very long list and you’ll find celebrations that include Hot Buttered Rum Day (January 17), International Canned Cocktail Day (September 10), Moscow Mule Day (March 3), and International Pisco Sour Day February 6). June 6 is Give a Bum a Drink Day, and June 5 is Moonshine Day.

      January 1 is both Hangover Day and Bloody Mary Day. That makes sense because, if you’re going to wake up feeling like Shane McGowan after Free Booze for Irish Barflies Day, you’ll need some salt and vegetables with the hair of the dog to get you through things.

      This past Monday (August 16) was National Rum Day. A little more open for debate is when we’re supposed to appease the Tiki gods by embracing National Mai Tai Day. Depending on where you’re looking, the celebration of one of the world’s most famous tropical drinks is June 30. Or maybe it’s a couple of weeks from now on August 30.

      That there’s some dispute about when to break out the Martinique and Jamaican rums, orgeat and simple syrups, orange liqueur, and fresh limes somehow makes sense given there’s considerable debate about who invented the Mai Tai. In his completely indispensable Sippin’ Safari, Tiki-drink historian Jeff “Beachbum” Berry goes back in history to trace the somewhat hazy birth of the cocktail.

      Depression-era band leader Harry Owens was both the composer of the Oscar-winning Hawaiian staple “Sweet Leilani” and the architect of Waikiki’s fabled Royal Hawaiians orchestra. Later on, he often claimed to have invented the Mai Tai while hanging around the bar of the iconic Royal Hawaiian Hotel.

      More credibly, Tiki-drink God and Polynesian chain restaurant visionary Trader Vic Bergeron is widely credited with coming up with the cocktail in 1944. After setting out to create the “finest drink we could make”, Trader Vic presented his resulting rum-based concotion to a couple of friends from Tahiti who declared it “mai tai”. Translated, that more or less meant “the best”. 

      The only problem was that equally legendary Tiki visionary Donn “Don the Beachcomber” Beach spent a good portion of his post-1950s time on Earth claiming that Trader Vic completely copped his style. Or, more accurately, his drink.

      According to Berry—who truly deserves a gold medal for research, and whose New Orleans restaurant Latitude 29 is a must-visit—Trader Vic spent an evening at Don the Beachcomber’s in 1937. While there, he not only twigged into Beach being onto something with his Polynesian decor, but also decided that a Beachcomber drink called the Q.B. Cooler was the best thing ever.

      Said drink mixed orange juice, club soda, Appleton and Pontalba rums with an array of additional ingredients: Don’s honey mix, falernum, ginger syrup, Angostura bitters, lime, and Western Pearl demerara rum. Berry’s verdict: “This recipe tastes remarkably similar to Vic’s Mai Tai. Even more remarkable is how Vic re-created the Q.B.’s flavour using almost entirely different ingredients: the two drinks have nothing in common except lime and rum.”

      Given that the ingredients are so different, he argues that Vic gets credit for inventing the Mai Tai, which became such a sensation that, by the late ’50s, it was on the list of every second restaurant in America. Predictably, because there was no Internet, and because neither Don the Beachcomber or Trader Vic were sharing their recipes, few bartenders got the drink right.

      That unrepentant bastardization of the Mai Tai lasted for decades. To order the cocktail in the 1970s was to get white rum mixed with anything from concentrated pineapple juice or Tang crystals to a melted burnt-orange Crayola crayon with a Day-Glo maraschino cherry for colour.

      Even today, it’s hard to find a place that will do things totally right, at least in Vancouver. The reason? That would be the fact that a truly authentic Mai Tai, as invented by Trader Vic, calls for not only aged Jamaican rum, but 17-year-old J. Wray & Nephew rum. Because the latter spirit has basically been impossible to find for, well, forever, Martinique rum is considered the official substitute. (Side note: as truly obsessive liquor nerds know, rum more than any other spirit, can ruin a drink if you reach for the wrong bottle. Dispute that all you want, but not before making a Painkiller with Havana Club, or a Mojito with Pusser’s.)

      Finding aged Jamaican rum isn’t a problem on the West Coast. Appleton Estate 8 Year Old Reserve will not only do the job, but is actually pretty damn great, rich with notes of smokey honey, sticky vanilla, and freshly ground allspice.

      Where things get challenging is sourcing Martinique rum, which is made from fresh-pressed sugarcane juice and known by the official designation “rhum agricole”. There are over a dozen rum distilleries on the tiny Caribbean Island and, should you ever be in the mood to load up and pay the duty, they produce over 200 different bottles to choose from. Those range from the Mai Tai–friendly St. James Hors D’Age to the almost tequilalike Trois Rivières Rhum Blanc Agricole.

      Whether vegetal or floral, all Martinique rums have something in common: you can’t find them in government-operated British Columbia liquor stores. In fact you’ve never been able to buy any of them in British Columbia, at least for the 10 years that this liquor nerd has spend fruitlessly looking for Martinique rum. (In Paris, a variety of Martinique rums are readily available on the shelves of the corner grocery stores, which is why my suitcase is always loaded down with St. James and Rhum Dillon when returning from vacation, as opposed to six bottles of Romanée-Conti Grand Cru.)

      So, because getting hold of Martinique rum in Vancouver is currently out of the question, how do you make an authentic Trader Vic Mai Tai? Well, you can start by holding off until September. The Straight fired off an email to province-run British Columbia Liquor Stores asking why Martinique rum continues to be nonexistent on shelves. The following good news came back: “The BC Liquor Stores (BCLS) category manager expects BCLS will have the Saint James - Agricole Royal Ambre, which is a brand of Martinique rum, available in stores in early September.” Until then, you won’t disappoint anyone by subbing in Appleton Estate 8 Year Old Reserve for the Martinique in the following recipe, which was unearthed by Berry for Sippin’ Safari.

      Don’t forget to whip up Tiki’s most famous cocktail on August 30—or um, next June 30—for National Mai Tai Day. And don’t even think about putting your own ’70s-style spin on things with pineapple juice, orange juice, burnt-orange crayon, or packet of Tang that’s been in your great grandparent’s cupboard since the moon landing.

      Trader Vic’s Mai Tai

      1 oz. amber Martinique Rum (St. James or Clément)
      1 oz. aged Jamaican Rum
      1/2 oz. orange Curacao
      1 oz. fresh lime juice
      1/4 oz. orgeat syrup
      1/4 oz. simple syrup
      Shake well with crushed ice. Pour into a double old-fashioned glass and garnish with a mint sprig. 

      Mike Usinger is not a professional bartender. He does, however, spend most of his waking hours sitting on barstools.

      Comments