The Mai-Tai was supposedly invented in 1944, at the Trader Vic's restaurant in Oakland, California, for friends who were visiting from Tahiti. Maita'i is the Tahitian word for "good," said to be the verdict of the visitors upon tasting the new cocktail. An alternate origin story attributes the invention to Don the Beachcomber, of the Beachcomber bar in Hollywood, in 1945. The garden variety Mai-Tai is made with rum, orange-flavored Curaçao liqueur, and lime juice, and garnished with a piece of fresh pineapple, and a maraschino cherry. But with the rise of Tiki bars, and tourist travel to Fiji, Tahiti, and Hawai'i, the Mai-Tai has become the archetypal Tiki drink, without or without an umbrella.

With the popular resurgence of Tiki bars and Tiki culture (complete with brightly colored shirts, rum drinks and ethnic art) the Mai-Tai has been reborn. But along with the burgeoning interest in the Mai-Tai, there's been a passionate movement to return to the Official Sacred Trader Vic's Mai-Tai recipe. Devotees of the traditional Mai-Tai are issuing fiats forbidding orange or pineapple juice. To the purist, the Original Sacred Trader Vic Mai-Tai consists of high quality aged rum, orange Curaçao, simple syrup/rock candy syrup, fresh lime juice, and an almond syrup called orgeat, served on the rocks in (for the traditionalists) a highball glass, and garnished with a gently bruised sprig of fresh mint.

There are a number of Mai-Tai recipes; all of them are better for avoiding poor quality rum and pre-made mixes. I'm a firm believer in avoiding flavored rums for Mai-Tais, and using a mixture of aged (twelve years or more) light and dark rum. I will confess that I am partial to an otherwise traditional Mai-Tai with light and dark rum, Curaçao, freshly squeezed lime juice, orgeat, and a garnish made with a chunk of fresh locally grown pineapple from Maui, and a sprig of fresh mint. For the traditionalist, here's a super video of Martin Cate, owner of the San Francisco Tiki bar Smuggler's Cove making a very traditional Mai-Tai. The Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki uses orange juice in their Mai-Tai version; the Trader Vic's version is here. For those of you interested in bulk Mai-Tai creation, here's a Mai-Tai recipe using fresh ingredients that makes a gallon (but that does use orange juice, so purists, consider yourself warned).

Photo credit: Hawaiian style Mai-Tai by duluoz cats.