mai tai

Mai Tai

IBA Official Cocktail
Type	Cocktail
Primary alcohol by volume	Rum
Served	On the rocks; poured over ice
Standard garnish	pineapple spear and lime peel
Standard drinkware	Highball glass
IBA specified ingredients†	3cl (6 parts) white rum 1.5cl (3 parts) orange curaçao 1.5cl (3 parts) Orgeat syrup .5cl (1 part) rock candy syrup 1cl (2 parts) fresh lime juice 3cl (6 parts) dark rum
Preparation	Shake all ingredients except the dark rum together in a mixer with ice. Strain into glass and float the dark rum onto the top. Garnish and serve with straw.

The Mai Tai is an alcoholic cocktail purportedly invented at the Trader Vic's "Polynesian-style" restaurant in Oakland, California in 1944. Trader Vic's rival, Don the Beachcomber, claimed to have created it in 1933 at his then-new eponymous bar (later a famous restaurant) in Hollywood. Don the Beachcomber's recipe is more complex than that of Vic and tastes quite different.^[1]

"Maita'i" is the Tahitian word for "good." The spelling of the drink, however, is two words.^[2][3][4]

The Trader Vic story of its invention is that the Trader (Victor J. Bergeron) created it one afternoon for some friends who were visiting from Tahiti. One of those friends, Carrie Guild, tasted it and cried out: "Maita'i roa ae!" (Literally "good very!", figuratively "Out of this world! The Best!") — hence the name.^[5]

Recipe

There are many recipes for Mai Tais. Seven of them, including three different versions of Trader Vic's, as well as the recipe of Don the Beachcomber, can be found at Wikibooks Mai Tai.

Culture

The mai tai became a such a popular cocktail in the 1950's and 1960's that virtually every restaurant, particularly tiki-themed restaurant or bar served them. The mai tai was also prominently featured in the popular Elvis Presley film "Blue Hawaii."

Today, the mai tai is synonymous with Tiki culture, both of the past and present. Virtually every modern tiki gathering centers around the mai tai in some fashion. Contemporary tikiphiles are quite meticulous about the mai tai and insist that it be prepared according the traditional Trader Vic's recipe. Although many mai tais are served with pineapple juice, exotic cocktail aficionados consider it faux pas for pineapple juice to be included in the drink.

As of 2008, Trader Vic's Restaurant chain has begun to open small establishments called Mai Tai Bars, that primarily serve cocktails and pupus (appetizers).

References

External links

Find more about Mai Tai on Wikipedia's sister projects:

Definitions from Wiktionary
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Quotations from Wikiquote
Source texts from Wikisource
Images and media from Commons
News stories from Wikinews
Learning resources from Wikiversity

• Mai Tai links at the Open Directory Project
• Tiki culture at the Open Directory Project

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