One of my favorite aspects of the craft cocktail movement is its emphasis on the classics. For every bartender who incorporates molecular gastronomy, hand-held wood chip smokers and exotic ingredients with names too difficult to even try to pronounce, there are three others who take immense pride in being able to serve up a perfectly executed Old Fashioned, Negroni, Clover Club or Sazerac.
Here in Hawaii, the mai tai is undoubtedly at the top of many locals’ lists of quintessential tourist drinks that they’ll never bother to order. And that’s too bad, because there are still more than a few mixologists here doing magical things with the rum-based cocktail, in large part due to the annual World’s Best Mai Tai contest at the Royal Kona Resort.
While the original mai tai recipe — accepted by many in the cocktail community as the version made famous by Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron in 1944 — wasn’t invented here, Bergeron did travel to Honolulu nine years later, when he was commissioned to create another version of the drink for the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. The Royal Scratch Mai Tai, made with fresh pineapple and orange juice mixed with orange curacao, rum and orgeat, and topped with a dark rum float, is still served at the Royal Hawaiian’s Mai Tai Bar the same way it was originally conceived nearly 65 years ago.
“Some bartenders just want to serve you a beer and a shot and don’t want to go out of their way,” said Mai Tai Bar head bartender Kui Wright. “At our bar we love serving our customers. When we serve you that drink, it’s going to be one of the best you’ll ever have.
“It’s all about the Waikiki experience. I’m not going to be the guy who ruins it. I’m going to be the one who enhances it.”
Wright, 40, said the five new mai tai recipes now on the menu were created with the return customer in mind. While the majority of people who visit the Mai Tai Bar aren’t actually hotel guests (there are more locals coming than you might think, Wright added), they are coming back trip after trip.
“We create these relationships with our customers,” he said. “You can always come back to the original Royal Scratch Mai Tai, but when I’ve got customers who have been coming here 10, 20, 30, 40 years, we want to have something new for them to try as well.”
VIC’S 44 ($12)
What the menu says: “Our take on Trader Vic’s original 1944 Mai Tai.”
What Wright says: “You get a lot of people nowadays when they get a little older, that they want a cocktail that isn’t too sweet. So we got fresh lime in there, but there’s the fresh mint, too. It’s something you can sip on in the sun all day at the beach.”
WHITE WASH ($12)
What the menu says: “Topped with not one, but two floats!”
What Wright says: “This one, we add our coconut foam, which changes your whole view on the way a mai tai is supposed to taste. You think sweet but it’s not. It’s a light foam you’re sipping from the lip of the glass, and it changes the texture and overall flavor of the drink.”
96 DEGREES IN THE SHADE ($14)
What the menu says: “Cool off with this frozen delight.”
What Wright says: “You get a lot of places that say a mai tai should have crushed ice. But when you crush ice out here, it dilutes our drinks really fast as it melts in the sun. So we created a blended option that includes passion fruit puree and serve it with a shot of dark rum on the side to make it a little more fun than just ordering your typical mai tai.”
CACAO TAI ($14)
What the menu says: “So unique you have to try it!”
What Wright says: “You think cacao, you think chocolate, but this is something you can sip on without it getting overly sweet. The fresh lemon and fresh espresso change the flavor, and there’s a nice chocolate foam on top of it with a hint of salt. You’re getting a really dynamic drink, and it’s been really well received.”
ALI‘I MAI TAI ($35)
What the menu says: “This signature Mai Tai is made with the finest aged rums.”
What Wright says: “There are some really great aged rums out there. When you add some fresh pineapple and fresh lime, it’s amazing. With great sipping rums like Appleton from Jamaica and El Dorado from Guyana, people who understand liquor don’t complain about the price. The fresh citrus flavors really help open it up on the palate, and we’ve been doing really well with it.”
Jason Genegabus has written about Honolulu bars since 2001. Contact him at jason@staradvertiser.com with suggestions of places to visit and drinks to try; read his blog at inthemix.staradvertiserblogs.com.
