Galliano.
What can be said about it? It comes in a tall bottle that refuses to fit in a liquor cabinet. It is vibrant yellow, blindingly so. Like licorice, Galliano has an “either you love it or loathe it” taste profile of anise and vanilla. It is definitely an acquired taste.
The liquor gained prominence during the Dark Ages of Cocktails in the 70s when executives at McKesson Liquor Co. concocted the Harvey Wallbanger, a cocktail made of Galliano, vodka, and orange juice. The Harvey Wallbanger was a hit and McKesson sought other ways to market Galliano.
One of those efforts was an early 70s cocktail booklet published by McKesson that featured Galliano front and center in all of the recipes. Some of the recipes were new and unique to the booklet while others were riffs on established cocktails (Galliano Margarita, Galliano Manhattan, Galliano Daiquiri, etc.).
A variation that appeared in the booklet was a Galliano take on the tiki vanguard cocktail, the Mai Tai.
The Galliano Mai Tai calls for:
- 1 oz Galliano
- 1 oz White Rum
- 0.5 oz Lime Juice
- 0.5 oz Orgeat
- 0.5 oz Orange Curaçao
Put all ingredients into an ice-filled rocks glass, stir, and garnish.
The end result should look akin to this:
The Galliano Mai Tai is quite similar to the classic ‘44 Trader Vic’s Mai Tai save an ounce of rum has been replaced by an ounce of Galliano.
This drink is 29% Galliano.
That’s a lot of Galliano.
The spirits for this cocktail are fairly easy to obtain; nothing discontinued since the 70s. Galliano is Galliano and there is no substituting that in a Galliano Mai Tai. For the Orange Curaçao, Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao is a nice go to for Mai Tais.
The Galliano Mai Tai calls for a white rum. Based on the recipe this poses the question: use a higher quality rum and increase the probability of making a good tasting drink, or error on the side of caution and use an inexpensive rum and build from there. For this cocktail, caution will be heeded and Bacardi Superior will be used over a higher quality rum, which would entail El Dorado 3, Plantation Three Star, or, as pictured above, Hamilton White ‘Stache.
The first step is to fill a rocks glass with ice.
Next, pour in one full ounce of Galliano. Bask in its yellow glow.
Add one ounce of Bacardi Superior.
Then half an ounce of freshly squeezed lime juice.
Pour in a half an ounce of orgeat. Liber & Co. is a great one to use.
Finally, add the half an ounce of the Dry Curaçao
Despite containing citrus, the recipe calls for the drink to be lightly stirred once or twice. This, of course, isn’t going mix the cocktail very well as it will keep the ingredients in layers.
The end cocktail is horrible. In an attempt to salvage it, it was dumped into a shaker, shaken, and repoured with additional ice. It failed.
Galliano is the dominate flavor, which is probably to be expected as this is the Galliano Mai Tai after all. The Bacardi doesn’t have much character to it, which allows the Galliano to dominate the drink. Using a rum with more character, such as a funky Jamaican rum or a Rhum Agricole, would clash with the Galliano. Using a higher quality white rum also would have been a bad idea as any uniqueness it would have brought would’ve been overpowered by the Galliano.
The taste is akin to absinthe-vanilla; it is sickly sweet and not a pleasant sweet that is found in other tiki cocktails. Adding simple syrup, which many Mai Tais call for, would have made this worse. The cocktail also leaves an unpleasant aftertaste.
A possible remedy for the Galliano Mai Tai would be to re-balance it. Cutting back the Galliano by at least half and also reducing the orgeat would help bring down the sweetness. Perhaps a better option would be to prepare a Mai Tai according to spec of preference and then add a splash of Galliano to it at the end.
The Mai Tai is not the best cocktail to have a Galliano riff done to it, but it might work in other tiki drinks that use absinthe or Pernod.
If you enjoyed this write up about a cocktail from a vintage cocktail book, check out other write ups I’ve done: