Cocktails · 26 September 2026 · 1 min read
The Mai Tai you've been served is a lie
No pineapple, no grenadine, no umbrella. The real one is two rums, fresh lime and a little almond, and it's a lot better than the resort version.
Most people have never had a Mai Tai. They've had a pineapple-and-grenadine thing in a hurricane glass with a paper umbrella that someone at a resort called a Mai Tai. That's not what this is.
A real Mai Tai is a rum sour in a Hawaiian shirt. It's tart, it's strong, and it tastes like rum instead of fruit juice.
The part that actually matters
Use two rums. An aged Jamaican rum brings the funk and a rhum agricole brings the grassy, dry side. One rum alone works, but it's flatter.
Go easy on the orgeat. It's almond syrup, and its job is to round off the lime, not sweeten the drink. A quarter ounce is plenty.
How I make it
Shake it hard with crushed ice and dump the whole thing, ice and all, into a double rocks glass. Throw in the lime shell you just squeezed and stick a sprig of mint at the edge so you smell it on every sip.
A fair warning
It's two ounces of rum that tastes like vacation. Pace yourself.
Cheers, Steve
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