Paddy,Fr. Paddy McGuinness wrote:Mai Tai from the House Without a Key at the Halekulani Hotel in Waikiki. I know it's subjective, but it's the best I've had.
1/3 Ounce Orgeat Syrup
1/3 Ounce Orange Curaçao
1/3 Ounce Rock Candy Syrup
3/4 Ounce Bacardi Gold Rum
1/2 Ounce Bacardi 151 Rum
1 1/4 Ounce Fresh Lime Juice
3/4 Ounce Bacardi Select (float)
Build it over crushed ice and float with 3/4 ounce of Bacardi Select Rum. Garnish with a lime wheel, sugar cane stick, mint leaf, and Vanda orchid (I skip the garnish). It fills one rocks glass. If nothing else it's worth trying because the original Charlie Chan stories were written under the Banyon tree at this hotel. Rock candy syrup is just half portions of water and sugar. Boil it until the sugar dissolves and it's done when it cools. Try unprocessed cane sugar for the best results. Be safe this weekend and beware escaped convicts with pregnant girlfriends.
After reading your and Conch's drinking tips I might add one in memory of Mad Buck Gibson aka Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway invented the now legendary Papa Doble daiquiri at the La Floridita bar in Havana and held the house record of 16. My Bucket List includes visiting La Floridita and beating Papa's record, once the last Castro goes. My plan: I start at noon, drink 2 an hour, and by 9 pm the record is mine. Mad Buck would approve.
Here is the recipe as recorded by Hemingway's pal A.E. Hotcher, which I taught to the bartenders at Chicago's Trader Vic's around 1990, they loved it.
3 ounces white rum (Bacardi or Havana Club)
Juice of 2 limes
Juice of 1/2 grapefruit
6 drops of maraschino liqueur
Fill a blender one-quarter full of shaved ice. Add rum, lime juice, grapefruit juice and maraschino liqueur. Blend until well mixed and serve in a large goblet. Or you can shake all ingredients with ice, then pour over shaved ice into a goblet or cocktail glass.