Recipe // Larsen’s Trader Vic's Mai Tai
Tiki drinks had a major moment in the 19050’s & 1960’s, and Trader Vic’s was the mothership. The Mai Tai (allegedly invented by Trader Vic’s founder in 1944) was their signature drink, which unlike the fruity, sweet versions you may have sipped at a dorky luau on vacation, contains no pineapple juice or nonsense of any kind. There’s some magical alchemy that happens when precise amounts of just the right rum, orgeat, orange curacao & fresh lime juice combine. It tastes tropical, like there must be pineapple juice in there somewhere, but isn’t any at all? Also, and this is important because you should proceed with caution: there’s more rum in there than you think.
Most Trader Vic’s locations have sadly closed, but one remained in Emeryville, California, not far from where we used to live. On one particular evening when our toddlers were being especially naughty, my husband, Larsen, and I sought solace in a couple of Trader Vic’s Mai Tais.
They were a revelation, and soon after Larsen started chasing the original 1944 Trader Vic’s recipe. (This is his kind of project.) He researched online and in his cocktail books, ordered countless bottles of different rum & orange curacao, and figured out how to purchase Trader Vic’s orgeat syrup by the case.
The result of Larsen’s efforts, if I may say so as his very proud & lucky wife, is a perfect Trader Vic’s Mai Tai, a drink so good we planned a whole party around it. (Not even a little bit kidding about that one.) It is a simple recipe, really, but the ingredients & measurements make all the difference. It took a great deal of cajoling to convince Larsen to share this recipe, so please enjoy it with his compliments!
LARSEN’S TRADER VIC’S MAI TAI
Serves 1
2 ounces Denizen Merchant’s Reserve Rum
1/2 ounce De Kuyper Orange Curacao*
1/4 ounce Trader Vic’s Orgeat Syrup
1 ounce freshly-squeezed lime juice (save the shells for garnishing)
Fresh mint, for garnish**
Pour rum, orange curacao, orgeat & lime juice in a shaker filled with ice. Shake until chilled & then strain into a mai tai glass (an old-fashioned will do just fine) filled to the brim with ice. Garnish with half of a squeezed lime shell & fresh mint.
*There are fancier orange curacao’s, but none of them are right. I told Larsen the De Kuyper smells like a gas station bathroom air freshener, but in this particular drink, just trust me: it is THE ONE.
**You may be tempted to skip this, but I encourage you not to! There’s something about the aroma of fresh mint as you sip that completes the drink.