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*	40ml (8 parts) white rum 20ml (4 parts) dark rum 15ml (3 parts) orange Curaçao 15ml (3 parts) Orgeat syrup 10ml (2 parts) fresh lime juice
Preparation	Shake all ingredients except the dark rum together in a mixer with ice. Strain into glass filled with ice cubes and float the dark rum onto the top. Garnish and serve with straw.

The Mai Tai is an alcoholic cocktail based on rum, Curaçao liqueur, and lime juice, associated with Polynesian-style settings.

History

It was purportedly invented at the Trader Vic's restaurant in Oakland, California, in 1944. Trader Vic's rival, Don the Beachcomber, claimed to have created it in 1933 at his then-new bar named for himself (later a famous restaurant) in Hollywood. Don the Beachcomber's recipe is more complex than that of Vic's and tastes quite different.^[1]

"Maita'i" is the Tahitian word for "good"; but the drink is spelled as two words, sometimes hyphenated or capitalized.^[2][3]

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 "very good!", figuratively "Out of this world! The Best!") — hence the name.^[4]

Recipe

There are many recipes for Mai Tais. Eleven 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 such a popular cocktail in the 1950s and '60s that many restaurants, particularly tiki-themed restaurants or bars, served them. The Mai Tai was also prominently featured in the Elvis Presley film Blue Hawaii.

Today, the Mai Tai is synonymous with Tiki culture both past and present.

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

References

External links

Find more about Mai Tai at Wikipedia's sister projects
	Definitions and translations from Wiktionary
	Media from Commons
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource
	Textbooks from Wikibooks
	Learning resources from Wikiversity

• Mai Tai links on the Open Directory Project
• Tiki culture on the Open Directory Project
• The Cocktail Spirit with Robert Hess - Video demonstration for making a proper Mai Tai

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