A perfectly balanced tropical classic, this beloved cocktail is bright with lime but softened with nutty orgeat.
In its heyday, the mai tai was the “it” drink. Invented by Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron in the 1940s, the cocktail inspired a slew of imitators and was such a hot ticket that disputes arose around who invented it.
The debate was so heated that Trader Vic not only filed a lawsuit against a rival bar to prove he was the inventor, but he also took out a full page ad in The New York Times attesting to this. What would inspire such an uproar? Well, mix one according to his recipe and you’ll see what all the fuss is about.
Essentially a modified daiquiri on the rocks, Trader Vic’s original recipe was made with J. Wray & Nephew 17 Year Old rum, which is no longer available, save for a few bottles tucked away in private collections or high-end bars that will serve you a pour for $1,000. The mai tai was so popular that Trader Vic wiped out most of the J. Wray & Nephew 17 supply within a year of adding the cocktail to his menu, after which he created a blend of Jamaican and Martinican rum as a substitute.
Trader Vic’s recipes were written in code, so over time, his mai tai formula was lost and copycat versions began to proliferate, deviating from the original with ingredients like pineapple and blue curaçao and threatening to ruin the legacy of the drink. Thankfully, due to research by tiki historian Jeff “Beachbum” Berry and rum expert Martin Cate, the code was cracked and craft bartenders began to make the original again, blending aged English-style rum with rhum agricole for the base.
At the end of the day, the mai tai—a combination of rum, orange curaçao, orgeat, and lime—brings home the adage that the best cocktails skew toward simplicity, with a touch of je ne sais quoi that pushes it into the realm of the sublime.
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