There’s something about lifestyle books from the late 60s to the early 80s that capture a distinct era through a bronzed lens. Images of homes, fashion, cuisines, and cocktails during this timeframe are forever immortalized in books tucked away in grandma’s curio cabinet or readily found dirt cheap on the shelves of used book stores and Goodwills.
The Bacardi Party Book is such an advertisement/pamphlet/cocktail booklet from this period. Published by Bacardi in 1973, the booklet contains twenty-nine recipes, from daiquiris to punches, from cocktails to entrees, that all feature Bacardi brand rums front and center: Bacardi Light, Bacardi Dry, Bacardi 151 (RIP dear 151), and Bacardi Añejo.
There is a variety of Bacardi-centric tiki drinks in the brochure: Bacardi Planter’s Punch, Bacardi Navy Grog, Bacardi Scorpion, and so on. The mai tai is perhaps the most iconic cocktail in the tiki pantheon, so this write up will focus on that specific recipe.
The Bacardi Mai-Tai calls for:
- .5 oz fresh lime juice
- .5 oz orgeat
- .5 oz simple sugar syrup
- .5 oz orange Curaçao
- 1 jigger of Bacardi Light
- .5 jigger of Bacardi 151 or 1 jigger of Bacardi Dark or Añejo rum
Put into a glass half filled with ice. Stir once or twice and garnish.
Per the accompanying photo for the recipe, the end result should look like this:
Looking at the specs of the Bacardi Mai-Tai, the recipe is pretty much the original 1944 Trader Vic’s mai tai save that the rums are from Bacardi and are Puerto Rican instead of Jamaican and there is some differing ratios.
Bacardi 151 was discontinued back in 2016 making the 151 iteration of the Bacardi Mai-Tai impossible to reproduce unless one has saved a bottle all this time. Don Q 151 would make an excellent replacement for a Puerto Rican 151 overproof rum. However, the Bacardi Mai-Tai offers an alternative recipe using Bacardi Añejo which is easily procurable. For the Bacardi Light, Bacardi Superior is the successor rum, which is also easy to obtain. Pierre Ferrand is a workhorse orange liqueur for mai tais so it will be a perfect choice for the orange Curaçao.
Step one was is to fill a rocks glass half full of ice. As will be shown later, much more ice will definitely be needed.
Next .05 oz of freshly squeezed lime juice is added.
Then .05 oz of orgeat. In this instance, Liber & Co., but any personal favourite or homemade will do.
This is followed by .05 oz of simple syrup. Pictured here is rich Demerara simple syrup (2 to 1 ratio).
.05 oz of Pierre Ferrand is added next.
Then 1 jigger of Bacardi Superior. Comparing the Bacardi Mai-Tai recipe to the Trader Vic’s original, 1 jigger is going to be 1 oz.
And finally 1 oz (1 jigger) of Bacardi 4.
There is probably not enough ice for the drink at this point, so definitely add more. Where the Bacardi Mai-Tai differs from the original Trader Vic’s mai tai (or any cocktail that uses citrus juice) is that it is built in the glass and stirred rather than put into a shaker, shook, and then poured. However, directions are directions, so the final step is the stir the Bacardi Mai-Tai – a gentle stir once or twice at that – and garnish.
The end result is not bad, but it really needed to be shook. A once or twice stir of these ingredients is not enough to aerate the drink or homogenize it. It’s practically still a layered drink at this point, so the first sip is all Bacardi 4 and not much else. However, putting the drink into a shaker, giving it a quick shake, and dumping the cocktail back while adding some additional ice fixes this issue. Basically, skip building this mai tai in the glass and do it in a shaker.
Aside from the stirred/shaken snafu, the Bacardi Mai-Tai is pretty spot on! It lacks a bit of the funk that mai tais that use Jamaican rums (such as Smith and Cross) have. It is on the sweeter end of the spectrum by having a total of one ounce of syrups, but it still tastes pretty damn good! The neat thing about this mai tai is how easily obtainable the ingredients are. Unless one lives near a BevMo, Total Wine, or a really well stocked alcohol store, some brands of rum and other spirits can be hard to procure unless one shops online. Most Bacardis, on the other hand, are readily available at grocery and liquor stores, and at a much generous price point. For tiki neophytes who are just starting their bar, the Bacardi Mai-Tai is a great stepping stone without breaking the bank. Overall, this libation is a surprising success from the disco dark ages of cocktail culture.