More Mai Tais.

There is of course only one real recipe for the Mai Tai,but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun to make tweaks and riffs. Here are a few I’ve recently come across.

Mix #167 Frankie’s Mai Tai

1oz Myers’s dark rum
1oz Lemon Hart 80 proof rum
1oz orange curacao
1oz orgeat
1/2oz simple syrup
half a large lime

Squeeze the juice from the lime half into a double-old-fashioned glass and drop in the rind. Add the rest of the ingredients and fill with ice. Pour contents into shaker,shake,then pour back into glass.

The Mai Tai served at Frankie’s in Vegas. Way sweet and the curacao really comes forward. I love their Fink Bomb,but this is not the way to make a Mai Tai. It’s too sweet and a Mai Tai is all about balance;none of the ingredients should really come forward,it should just taste like Mai Tai. Hey,can’t win them all,even the Pythons had a couple stinker episodes.

Mix #168 Undertow Mai Tai

1oz Smith & Cross rum
1oz Rhum J.M V.S.O.P. rum*
1oz lime juice
3/4oz orgeat
1/2oz Cointreau Noir*

Shake with ice and pour into double rocks glass.

*See below.

Another bar Mai Tai,this time from the Undertow locations in Arizona. A touch sweet,but overall enough of a balance that I liked it. A bit more kick than a regular Mai Tai due to the S&C. Give it a try if you want some variety in your Mai Tais. I used Rhum Barbancourt instead of J.M V.S.O.P. Both are agricoles,which means they’re made from sugar cane juice instead of from molasses like most rums. This makes them extra funky and flavorful,but the S&C plus Noir help keep it in its place so as not to overwhelm the drink. I also made my own Noir. According to my research,Cointreau Noir is Cointreau and cognac in a 70/30 blend. So I mixed 70ml of Cointreau to 30ml of VSOP brandy to make my own. It’s very similar to Grand Marnier,maybe a bit drier. I still prefer Pierre Ferrand in a Mai Tai,but this works pretty good as well.

Mix #169 Breakfast Mai Tai

1.5oz Smith & Cross rum
1/2oz Gifford Banane du Bresil
1oz lime juice
1/2oz orgeat
1/4oz cinnamon syrup
3/4oz Coruba rum

Put everything except Coruba into a shaker with a couple ice pellets and shake until they’re gone. Then pour into double rocks glass,add Coruba,and top with ice.

Created by Fanny Chu at the Donna in NYC. So I’ve no idea what this has to do with breakfast,other than eating cinnamon rolls. The cinnamon really comes forward. There’s a touch of banana at the end,but this is basically a cinnamon Mai Tai. It’s also got plenty of kick due to the one and a half ounces of Navy rum. A couple of these and you’ll want to go back to bed. The instructions are also odd,the Coruba isn’t a float,it’s going to mix in when you add the ice so you might as well just shake everything together. At the end it just didn’t do anything for me,but if you’re into cinnamon give it a shot.

So go ahead and explore the limits of Mai Tai. After all,variety is the spice of life.