The Mai Tai Was Never Meant to Taste Like Fruit Punch

The Mai Tai Was Never Meant to Taste Like Fruit Punch

The Mai Tai combines rum, lime juice, orgeat, orange curaçao, and simple syrup to create a balanced and delicious tropical cocktail.

In Search of the Ultimate Mai Tai

“Mai Tais are very tiki in that they’re very hard to balance,” says Kavé Pourzanjani, owner of Paradise Lost in New York City. “All the tiki [drink] problems apply: They’re often too sweet, and if your lime juice isn’t fresh it completely ruins the cocktail.” Though the Trader Vic original ranks among the simpler tiki recipes on paper, its four key ingredients—rum, lime juice, orgeat and orange liqueur—are not an easy combination to get right. A…