Recipe: Mai Tai

This formula for a classic Mai Tai is based on the version perfected by restaurateur Victor J. Berjeron, better known as Trader Vic. Says Black Market beverage director Chris Coy (soon to man the bar at The Inferno Room), “The fun of a Mai Tai is finding the blend of rums that works for you. This recipe calls for an ounce of dark Jamaican rum (Plantation O.F.T.D. Overproof) and an ounce of aged rhum agricole (Clément Select Barrel), but it’s up to you to decide which ones you like best.”

Ingredients:

• 1 ounce Clément Select Barrel rhum agricole
• .75 ounce Plantation O.F.T.D. Overproof rum
• .5 ounce Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
• .25 ounce Wilks & Wilson Adelaide’s Orgeat (almond-infused elixir with rose water)
• .25 ounce demerara syrup*
• 1 ounce fresh lime juice
• 3 drops Bittermens ’Elemakule Tiki bitter

*To make demerara syrup, combine ½ cup demerara sugar, ½ cup regular sugar, and 1 cup water in a saucepan. Heat over low flame, stirring until all sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and store in refrigerator for up to one month.

Instructions:

• Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled 2/3 of the way with crushed ice. Shake 10­–15 seconds.
• Pour into double old-fashioned glass.
• Garnish with sprig of mint and lime wedge.

Want more tiki? Read our January 2019
Isle of Tiki package here.