In Search of the Ultimate Mai Tai

“Mai Tais are very tiki in that they’re very hard to balance,” says Kavé Pourzanjani, owner of Paradise Lost in New York City. “All the tiki [drink] problems apply: They’re often too sweet, and if your lime juice isn’t fresh it completely ruins the cocktail.”

Though the Trader Vic original ranks among the simpler tiki recipes on paper, its four key ingredients—rum, lime juice, orgeat and orange liqueur—are not an easy combination to get right. And the ways in which things can go wrong have evolved over the years. “Ten to 20 years ago, ‘too sweet’ was a concern,” said Kathryn “Pepper” Stashek of Bar Kabawa, also in New York. “I think now we can skew too dry.” 

Stashek and Pourzanjani were joined by rum expert Paul McGee and myself to go in search of the ultimate Mai Tai. We were looking for a drink that was bright and had a pronounced rum backbone, without too much funk. “You should taste all the elements, but the goal is that everything comes together coherently,” said McGee.

Naturally, one of the biggest variables among the recipes was the rum choice: No two recipes called for the same blend. Some even incorporated other sugarcane spirits, like clairin and charanda, into their recipes. Trader Vic used a 17-year-old Jamaican rum in his original recipe, so the judges were looking for something that had the richness that comes with age, but were open to a split base so long as it did not throw the drink out of balance. “Those bolder rums that bartenders favor can backfire in a Mai Tai,” said McGee.  

But rum was far from the only consideration. As Stashek noted, “I’ve had good Mai Tais with any number of different rums; there are a lot of different blends that work. I want to know what orgeat you’re using.” She added: “I don’t want it to be too syrupy, but I want to taste almond in there.” As with the rums, no two recipes used the same orgeat; six were housemade, including one that used cashews in lieu of almonds, while three were store-bought.