A classic Mai Tai is creamy, nutty and insanely delicious! Made with two types of rum, lime juice, a sweet almond syrup and orange liqueur, it will become your new go-to cocktail.
If you order a mai tai in a bar these days, you’re likely to get a very fruity and heavily sugared drink. But the original mai tai wasn’t like that. Classic Mai Tai is rich, creamy, deliciously balanced and just a little bit nutty.
The traditional ingredients for a Mai Tai
Nutty you say? That’s correct. If you want to prepare a proper mai tai, the essential ingredient is organ (pronounced ohr-zsalike Zsa Zsa Gabor), a sweet almond syrup made from almonds, sugar and orange blossom water.
The Mai Tai belongs to the family of the so-called beverages angry, which are made with a base spirit, a sweetener, and citrus. Many classic drinks are based on the sour, such as the vodka sour, the whiskey sour, and the margarita, which is a tequila sour.
The traditional mai tai is a rum sour (also called a daiquiri) made with two types of rum, lime juice, and orgeat and orange liqueur as a sweetener.
Why Orgeat is so important
When you want to make a delicious, authentic mai tai, the type of orgeat matters a lot. It’s quite a good drink with an average orgeat, but becomes exceptional with a very good one.
When it comes to orgeat, you can either make your own or buy pre-made orgeat, although the quality of those available varies widely. The best orgeat I’ve ever tried is from Liber & Co. of Austin. The Small Hand Foods variety is nice too. Any of these two would be worth buying just for the purpose of making this drink!
If you can’t find a good orgeat, or any orgeat at all, simple syrup and almond extract is a viable substitute. (Proportions are 1/2 ounce simple syrup made from Turbinado or Demerara mixed with 1/8 teaspoon almond extract.)
The history of the rum in a Mai Tai
Now that we know everything about Orgeat, it’s time to move on rum!
While many modern tropical drinks mask the taste of their spirits, Trader Vic, who is responsible for the mai tai as we know it, actually created the drink as a showcase for a single superior rum. The rum he uses—a 17-year-old J. Wray & Nephew—is no longer available, which is why most mai tai recipes call for equal parts white and dark rum.
Original vs. more commonly used rum
According to Beachbum Berry, the best way to recreate the original Mai Tai rum is “an aged Martinique rum blended with a premium Jamaican rum.” Eager to be as thorough as possible in my role as cocktail historian, I picked up a bottle of Rhum Clément VSOP Martinique rum and another of the Appleton Estate Reserve Blend Jamaican rum.
If you are a purist and absolutely must try this drink the way it was originally intended, this is the way to go.
For my part I found this wording to have to lots of rum flavor. I prefer the drink with half white and half Jamaican rumthat let the almond notes come through. (Also, since I just told you to buy fancy Orgeat, adding two fancy rums seems beyond the pale.)
This recipe below reflects the semi-light, semi-dark formula commonly found in mai tai recipes. Bacardi Silver, one of my favorite rums to mix with, works well for the light half. For the darker half, an amber rum, preferably a Jamaican rum, is ideal, but a darker rum will do. Look for Appleton Estate Reserve or Signature, both very nice.
Want more rum cocktails? Please!
- Hemingway Daiquiri
- Blender Pina Coladas
- Hot rum with orange and vanilla
- Strawberry Mojito
- Dark and stormy
Mai Tai cocktail
If you don’t have orgeat, use 1/2 ounce of simple syrup (made from turbinado or demerara) mixed with 1/8 teaspoon of almond extract.
ingredients
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1 ounce bright rum
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1 ounce Amber rum (preferably Jamaican – if necessary, a dark rum will do)
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3/4 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
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1/2 ounce orange Curaçao (Cointreau will work too, or triple sec in a pinch)
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1/2 ounce organ (see recipe note)
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Crushed Ice
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mintfor garnish
method
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Combine all the ingredients:
Combine all liquid ingredients in a cocktail shaker, then fill shaker with crushed ice.
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Shake the drink:
Shake the drink until the shaker is almost too cold to hold. You don’t have to do this for as long as you would with a typical cocktail, as the crushed ice cools the drink faster.
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Pour:
Pour the entire contents of the shaker, including the ice, into an old-fashioned glass. Garnish with mint and enjoy!
| nutritional information (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 254 | calories |
| 1g | Fat |
| 24g | carbohydrates |
| 0g | protein |
