The Mai Tai It is the symbolic drink of Tiki mixing, born in the 30s in the United States thanks to the genius of Don The Beachcomber and the entrepreneurial vision of Trader Vic.
Its name, derived from the Tahitian expression “But I'm coming back!” meaning “excellent” or other terms of maximum appreciation, already suggests the reason for its success.
This cocktail stands out for its simple recipe but composed of quality ingredients. It has an intense and complex taste thanks to the combination of rum and fruity notes that make it exotic and suggestive.
Let's discover together its origins and how to best prepare it for its national day – which falls every year on August 30 – together with Davide Mitacchione, owner and bar manager of the Cocktail Bar Luau from Bari.
The History of the Mai Tai Cocktail
Let's start from a certain fact of its history: the Mai Tai as we know it today is a creation of Victor Jules Bergeron Jr., better known as Trader Vic who, one evening in 1944, let two Tahitian friends try it for the first time, Ham and Carrie Guild.
The exclamation we wrote about previously, “Maita'i roa ae!”, was uttered by Carrie Guild immediately after being won over by the taste of the cocktail. However, although this story is widely accepted, the actual origin of the drink remains uncertain to this day.
That evening was a sort of experiment to verify if the combination of ingredients was perfect before proposing it to the public. Carrie's enthusiastic reaction marked the cocktail's success.
“The Mai Tai remained unknown for about ten years. Its commercial diffusion began in the 60s,” says Davide Mitacchione, “after the Great War and after the annexation of Hawaii to the USA.”
“During that period, the first tourist shipping routes were created, starting from San Francisco, Trader Vic’s city and where he opened his first cocktail bar” – continues Mitacchione.
“At the time all the shipping and hotel companies offered the theme that would later be called Tiki, that is, tropical and exotic. Trader Vic then made trade agreements with them so that he could offer, in Tiki cruise ship bars in Hawaii, its drink offerings. That’s how the Mai Tai began to become popular.”
This cocktail started to become so trendy that Ernest Raymond Gantt, known to most as Donn Beach, tried to claim the creation of the drink.
Gantt had developed a much more complex recipe based on rum and lime juice nearly a decade before Trader Vic: his version included three types of rum, lime juice, Cointreau, Falernum, grapefruit juice, and Angostura bitters.
Accusations of plagiarism against Trader Vic were not long in coming. The dispute escalated, with accusations being exchanged that even led to the authorities being involved.
“Trader Vic used a Jamaican rum, the Wray & Nephew 17 years old, which among all his experiments was the one that was best suited to being used to create the drink – says Davide – Of Orange Curacao he used a specific one and the same thing for the orzata that he produced personally. It was a very particular and artisanal drink. When the cocktail became popular It was not easy to find Wray & Nephew 17 years old on the market in large volumes, so much so that they began to be used rum blend Jamaican And Martinican rum, the latter more molasses and medium-bodied which recreated notes of roasting, light notes of cocoa bean”.
The IBA recipe for Mai Tai is as follows:
- 30 ml Amber Jamaican Rum
- 30 ml Martinican Rum
- 15 ml Orange Liqueur Curacao
- 30 ml Fresh lime juice
- 7.5 ml Sugar syrup
Preparation: Shake all the ingredients with crushed ice and serve in a cold glass with the same ice as the shaken one. Add more crushed ice at the end and decorate with a sprig of mint.
The "jungle" twist of the Bari Luau
“At Luau we always try to combine a classic tiki mix with local raw materials, making it more Mediterranean,” says Davide. “In addition to the original Mai Tai, we offer a twist on our drink list: the Jungle Tai”.
Mitacchioni continues: “In the case of Jungle Tai, we combine a selection of our rums, including Rum Agricole, which gives a more vegetal note, with a hint of Mezcal that emphasizes a light smokiness, resumes the vegetal note and winks at the contemporary trend of drinking that sees products like Tequila and Mezcal in strong growth. Finally, we add the freshness given by the lime, grapefruit and carob orgeat that we make ourselves”.
Jungle Tai Recipe from Luau Cocktail Bar
- 3cl Rum mix
- 2 cl White Rum Agricole Martinique
- 1 cl Mezcal
- 3 cl Lime juice
- 3 cl Yellow Grapefruit Juice
- 3 cl Carob Orgeat
Preparation: shake all the ingredients with crushed ice and serve in a cold glass – in tiki mug -. Add a sprig of mint and grated carob for decoration.
“Compared to the classic Mai Tai, Jungle Tai has a different taste because the carob has hints of cocoa beans and the Mezcal gives more herbaceous and smoky notes. – says Davide – You always have freshness thanks to the lime and grapefruit and then there is our Rum mix that gives the main alcoholic body to the drink.
“They are two different experiences., but we often put them both in a “vertical tasting”, starting from the classic version and arriving at the more contemporary one, with a strong territoriality”.
