Mai Tai Recipe

Before you start

The original Mai Tai is not a fruit punch. It contains no pineapple or orange juice, no grenadine and no layered dark rum on top. It is an aged-rum sour sweetened with orange curaçao, almond orgeat and a little sugar syrup, served over crushed ice with a mint sprig and the spent lime shell. Who invented it is disputed between the Trader Vic and Don the Beachcomber camps, but the version most bartenders treat as canonical follows Trader Vic's recipe.

The rum carries the drink. Vic's original rum is long gone, so the modern approach is a blend: a rich, funky aged Jamaican rum for depth and an aged rhum agricole or Martinique rum for grassy brightness. Good orgeat matters too; cheap almond syrups taste of artificial extract.

Ingredients

• 30 ml (1 oz) aged Jamaican rum
• 30 ml (1 oz) aged rhum agricole or Martinique rum — or 60 ml total of one good aged rum
• 22 ml (¾ oz) fresh lime juice — keep one squeezed lime half
• 15 ml (½ oz) orange curaçao — a dry, brandy-based style is best
• 7 ml (¼ oz) orgeat
• 7 ml (¼ oz) rich simple syrup (2:1)
• 2 cups (about 250 g) crushed ice — for shaking and serving
• 1 large sprig fresh mint — garnish

Method

1. Crush the ice in a Lewis bag with a mallet, or pulse cubes briefly in a blender. You want small, irregular pieces, not slush.
2. Squeeze the lime and save one of the spent halves for the garnish.
3. Add both rums, the lime juice, curaçao, orgeat and rich syrup to the shaker. Add about a cup of crushed ice.
4. Shake hard for about 8 seconds. Crushed ice chills and dilutes faster than cubes, so a short shake is enough.
5. Pour everything, ice included, into the double rocks glass. Top with more crushed ice to form a small mound.
6. Press the spent lime shell into the ice, cut side down, to look like an island. Slap the mint sprig between your palms to release its aroma and plant it next to the lime.

Tips for success

• Place the mint where your nose will be when you sip. Most of what you perceive as the Mai Tai's freshness comes from smelling it.
• If you only have one rum, choose an aged rum with some character, not a plain white rum.
• Orgeat separates in the bottle. Shake it before measuring.

Substitutions

Orange curaçao

Triple sec works but is sweeter and lighter in body; drop the rich syrup if you use it.

Orgeat

There is no good substitute for the almond and orange-flower notes. A tiny drop of almond extract in simple syrup gets close but tastes less rounded.

Rhum agricole

A second aged Jamaican rum or a good Demerara rum makes a richer, darker drink without the grassy lift.

Variations

Royal Hawaiian-style Mai Tai

Add 30 ml pineapple juice and 15 ml orange juice for the fruitier resort version that became popular later.

Single-rum Mai Tai

Use 60 ml of one aged blended rum when you want a simpler build with fewer bottles.

Troubleshooting

It tastes like sweet almond candy

The orgeat is low quality or over-poured. Use a real almond orgeat and keep it to 7 ml.

It is watery

The shake was too long. With crushed ice, 6 to 8 seconds is plenty.

The drink lacks depth

The rum is too light. A pot-still Jamaican rum adds the funk and weight the drink needs.

Storage

Serve immediately; crushed ice melts quickly. The rum, curaçao and syrup portion can be batched and refrigerated for a party, with lime squeezed the same day. Refrigerate opened orgeat and use it within the time on its label.

Safety notes

Two rums plus curaçao add up to about 1.7 U.S. standard drinks (a standard drink is about 14 g of pure alcohol). Orgeat is made from almonds, so tell guests with tree nut allergies. Serve only to adults of legal drinking age and do not drink and drive.