Mai Tai

Would the real Mai Tai please make yourself known!

I enjoy the flavours of both orange and almond and use white rum in many drinks, so I could never reconcile the involuntary shudder, accompanying a stick your tongue out NO, whenever I was asked if I wanted to try a mai tai.  I first tried this cocktail somewhere hot, at a beach bar, sometime in my early twenties.  Clearly, I do not recall the details but I was left with a vivid recollection, that this was an overly sweet and alcohol tasting drink, never to be repeated.  There are many versions out there.

A happy accident then, that one balmy night, at a trendy cocktail bar in London’s Covent Garden, I sipped a friend’s drink and told the barman, with absolute confidence, that I would have what my friend was drinking.  “A mai tai, right,” he said, reaching under the counter for his shaker.  “No”,  I replied, “one… of…. those”, slowing my speech down and pointing to the drink, as he was obviously slow on the uptake.  “Yes”, my friend confirmed, “a mai tai”.  The barman raised his eyebrows and I was forever hooked. Continue reading “Cocktails” →