CELEBRATING THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MAI TAI
- Trader Vic’s Immortal Creation Comes Home -
by Richard Carleton Hacker

Sixty years ago, across the bay east of San Francisco, cocktail history was being made in Oakland, on the corner of Sixty-Fifth Street and San Pablo Avenue. That was the site of a rollicking Polynesian-themed restaurant that had originally opened in 1934 as a rustic saloon known as Hinky Dinks, inspired by the popular World War I ditty, “hinky dinky, parlez-vous.” But in 1937 the entrepreneurial proprietor, a San Francisco native named Victor Jules Bergeron, had taken a Caribbean trip and discovered rum. Or more importantly, rum drinks.

Returning to Oakland with recipes for cocktails such as the Daiquiri, Mojito, and Planters Punch - often with a little tweaking by Bergeron - these libations began appearing at Hinky Dink’s. But the semi-exotic drinks didn’t fit with Hinky Dink’s deer antler decor. After seeing San Francisco’s old South Seas bar, and then visiting the popular Don the Beachcomber restaurant in Hollywood and meeting its owner, Donn Beach (who he credited for much of his inspiration), Bergeron knew the direction he had to take. In 1937, Hinky Dinks was literally transformed overnight into Trader Vic’s, a name Bergeron also took for himself. The moniker came from Bergeron’s penchant for bartering goods and services during the Depression years.

Trader Vic’s was a success the day it opened, due in no small part to a four-page drink menu that featured 35 different rums, and coupled with Bergeron’s ability to entertain customers with showmanship both in front of and behind the bar. People naturally assumed the “Trader” part of his name came from adventurous dealings in the Caribbean and South Seas, even though, at the time, he had never ventured west of San Francisco. The fact that he had a wooden leg added to his mystique. It was generally thought that this was the result of a shark attack. The truth was, he had lost his left limb in a bout with tuberculosis when he was six. Thus, the entire restaurant, bar, and persona were creations of “Trader” Vic’s own making.

But it worked. People crossed the bay on the auto ferry in taxi’s, cars, and limousines to experience an evening of French-Polynesian-Chinese cooking and the equally exotic fruit-garnished cocktails of Trader Vic’s. The completion of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in 1936 made it easier for San Franciscans to get to Trader Vic’s, and the 1939-40 Golden Gate International Exposition focused even more attention on 6500 San Pablo Avenue. Revered columnist Herb Caen wrote, “The best restaurant in San Francisco is in Oakland.” Thus, by 1944, “Trader” (as he was called) decided he needed a world class drink to go with his restaurant’s world class reputation. He sat down with his bartender one evening to create a legend.

“We talked about creating a drink that would be the finest drink we could make, using the finest ingredients we could find,” Bergeron recounts in his book, Frankly Speaking: Trader Vic’s Own Story (Doubleday & Company; 1973).

What they came up with was this:

2 ounces 17-year-old J. Wray Nephew Jamaican rum
1/2 ounce French Garnier Orgeat
1/2 ounce Holland DeKuyper Orange Curaçao
1/4 ounce Rock Candy Syrup
juice from one fresh lime

“We poured the ingredients over shaved ice in a double old-fashioned glass,” Bergeron relates, “shook it well, added one spent lime shell and garnished it with a sprig of fresh mint.”

But just as he was about to taste it, a waiter told Bergeron that two friends of his, Eastham and Carrie Guild from Tahiti, were at the restaurant. Ever the congenial host, Bergeron went out to greet them.

“I told them I had just made a new drink that I hadn’t even tasted yet,” he recalled, “and would they like to try it with me? ‘Sure’ they said, and so I had two more made up using the exact same formula as the first. The drinks arrived. I tasted mine and didn’t say a thing. Carrie and Ham tasted theirs and Carrie asked Ham, ‘What do you think of it?’

“‘It’s mai tai, he said, ‘It’s mai tai roa áe’"

“I asked what in the hell that meant and Ham said, ‘In Tahitian it means ‘out of this world,’ ‘the best.’”

“That’s the name of this drink, then,” I said. “It’s Mai Tai. It’s out of this world.”

In an earlier version of this story, entitled “Let’s get the record straight on the Mai Tai,” written by Bergeron in 1970 (and often handed out to customers who inquire as to the origins of the drink), he attributes the “mai tai roa áe” statement to Carrie. And rather than interpreting “mai tai” as “out of this world,” current Trader Vic’s menus state, “Mai Tai ...means ‘the best’ in Tahitian.”

With two conflicting stories from the same source, it is unlikely we will ever know whether it was Carrie or Eastham who christened the Mai Tai. However, it is generally acknowledged that Trader Vic’s originated the drink. As a jab at those who would claim otherwise, an early menu from the Oakland restaurant lists 122 cocktails; many of the more exotic ones - including the Mai Tai - are starred, with the notation, “The drinks starred were originated by me and anyone who says different is a dirty stinker. - Trader Vic.”

Within a year the Mai Tai’s tremendous popularity with anyone able to wrap their hands around the big 15 ounce glass resulted in a shortage of the 17-year-old rum. Bergeron switched to J. Wray Nephew’s 15-year-old version. When that dwindled, Bergeron stretched his remaining stock by changing the formula to one ounce of 15 Year Old J. Wray Nephew and one ounce of Red Heart or Coruba Jamaican rum. Today one of the secrets in achieving Bergeron’s original Mai Tai taste is still the use of two rums. Even Trader Vic’s own Mai Tai Rum is a blend of Virgin Island and Martinique (French Caribbean) 80 proof rums.

As might be expected, the best Mai Tai’s are made by Trader Vic’s bartenders. Other mixologists - even when making the drink from scratch - typically use more pineapple and grenadine and even passion fruit, which was never part of the original equation. The overall result is a drink that is far too sweet. And while they may get most of the garnish right, dropping in the freshly squeezed lime hull and the sprig of mint are often omitted. The mint doesn’t affect the flavor as much as it does the bouquet as you approach the glass for that first refreshing sip. It is all a part of the Mai Tai experience. However, the hand-squeezed lime - as opposed to bottled lime juice - is crucial to the making of a proper Mai Tai. As Bergeron discovered in Havana when he tried to duplicate La Florida’s daiquiri, hand-squeezing a lime, and then dropping the squeezed rind into the drink, adds not only the juice, but what Bergeron referred to as “the essential oil from the lime.”

Another Bay area bar with some claim to the Mai Tai’s creation is the Tonga Room at the Fairmont Hotel. According to Jeff Doane, the hotel’s Director of Sales & Marketing, bartender Frank Lui helped Bergen create the original Mai Tai before jumping ship, as it were, to the Tonga Room, where he kept making Mai Tais for customers until the mid-1980s. Here’s the recipe the Tonga Room uses today: 1 ounce Myers Dark Rum, 1 ounce Bacardi 151 proof rum, 5 ½ ounces pineapple juice, a splash of orgeat syrup, a splash of fresh lime juice, and a slice of pineapple.

Fill a ceramic coconut cup with mini ice cubes. Pour in the Myers Dark Rum, Bacardi 151 proof rum, pineapple juice, orgeat syrup, and lime juice. Stir with a swizzle stick, garnish with the pineapple and a mini umbrella, and serve. However, not everyone agrees that this is the original Mai Tai.

“A difference between Trade Vic’s bartenders and most bartenders at other restaurants,” says Hans Richter, President and CEO of Trader Vic’s Inc., “is that at Trader Vics we insist that all liquors and fruit juices be exactly measured with a measuring glass, so that each pour is consistent. This way we can assure that every Mai Tai tastes the same. There is ‘no free pour;’ that’s one thing Vic Bergeron always insisted on.”

In 1951, San Franciscans were finally able to savor the celebrated cocktail without having to spend $10 to take a cab across the Bay Bridge; Trader Vic’s opened on the site of a parking lot and garage at 20 Cosmo Alley. When Vic Bergeron passed away in 1984 at the age of 82, Cosmo Alley was renamed Trader Vic Alley in his honor. In 1995 the San Francisco restaurant closed and today Le Colonial occupies the spot.

“He was a great guy,” says Chai Rojana, who began working with Bergeron in 1978 as Captain of Trader Vic’s in San Francisco and is now General Manager of the Beverly Hills Trader Vic's. “The first thing, he wanted everyone who worked for him to know every drink by heart. He put me behind the bar and I had to drink every drink, over a period of time, of course, so that I would know them all. Otherwise your training was not complete. And we had to know how to make the most popular drinks, especially the Mai Tai.”

Indeed, as the number of Trader Vic restaurants increased around the world, so did its following of Mai Tai devotees. In the 1970s, it was even served on board United Airline flights, the ultimate in a Mai Tai high. Today, with 77 exotic drinks on the Trader Vic’s menu, the Mai Tai remains their most popular cocktail. Actually, there are two versions, and a third, served at the Beverly Hills location and a few others, which is not officially sanctioned:

The Original Mai Tai
(as made by Trader Vic’s, Beverly Hills, CA)
3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
3/4 ounce Leroux Orange Curaçao
3/4 ounce Trader Vic’s Orgeat Almond syrup
1 ounce Coruba dark Jamaican rum
1 ounce dark Lemon Hart & Son Rhum Demerara from Guyana

Fill a wide mouthed glass with crushed ice. Squeeze the juice from 2 to 3 halved limes - enough to produce 3/4 oz. - onto the ice. Pour in the Orange Curaçao and the Orgeat syrup. Then pour in the Jamaican rum followed by the Guyana rum. Dump the entire contents of the glass - ice and all - into a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously for 30 seconds. Pour everything back into the glass, and garnish with a chunk of pineapple and a maraschino cherry skewered on a swizzle stick. For an authentic final touch, drop in one of the squeezed lime halves and add a sprig of mint. Bon voyage!

Regular Mai Tai
(as made by Trader Vic’s, Beverly Hills, CA, using Trader Vic’s Mai Tai Mix)

3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
3/4 oz. Trader Vic’s Mai Tai Mix
1 ounce Coruba dark Jamaican rum
1 ounce Moraga Cay Light rum from West Indies

For some reason, this time the bartender started by squeezing the lime juice into an empty glass and then adding the crushed ice (one must assume it doesn’t matter, as everything gets shaken together). Then pour in 3/4 ounce of the Trader Vic’s Mai Tai mix (which contains the Orgeat and Curaçao). Add one ounce of Coruba dark Jamaican rum, followed by one ounce of any light 80 proof rum (it was specifically pointed out that it doesn’t matter what brand of light rum is used). Then empty the glass into a cocktail shaker, shake vigorously, pour everything back into the glass and garnish as before. Interestingly, the regular Mai Tai is darker than the original, even with the light rum. The bartender called this drink, made with the Trader Vic’s mix, “the more pleasant one,” referring to its slightly milder taste.

“However, some of our regular customers who just love rum began asking for a Mai Tai with a bigger kick,” says Rojana. “So we started offering a Mai Tai made with 151 proof rum. We don’t advertise that one,” Rojana cautions, “and we are very careful who we serve it to. Only people who know us well order it.”

It is made exactly like the regular Mai Tai, using the Trader Vic’s mix and one ounce of 80-proof Coruba dark rum. But an ounce of Lemon Hart & Son 151 proof rum takes the place of the 80-proof light rum. This high-octane version packs a noticeable punch; two of them will put most people under the table. Although similar in color to the regular Mai Tai, the 151 version can be quickly identified, not only due to its higher alcoholic content, but because the higher proof causes frost to form on the outside of the glass. A regular Mai Tai, made with 80-proof rum, simply develops cold condensation.

Of the three versions, the fresh and fruity complexity of the original remains the favorite among long-time customers. Thick and rich in texture, it is loaded with citrus and cherry undertones working in harmony with the two meaty rums. By contrast, the regular Mai Tai made with a mix is lighter and sweeter in taste and the cherry flavor and syrupy texture are toned down. The flavors are decidedly more pronounced when this drink is handcrafted by a Trader Vic’s bartender. Sadly, people without family or friends who are regular Trader Vic customers in-the-know (or who haven’t read this article) may never experience the authentic Mai Tai taste, for if they simply ask for a Mai Tai, they will get one made with the mix. One must specifically ask for The Original - or the 151 version if it is offered.

“Ordering a Mai Tai is like a show for our customers,” says Richter. “All of our drinks are made on top of the bar, not underneath. And they are large. So even though the Mai Tai may seem expensive, you are actually getting two drinks in one.”

San Franciscans will soon be able to experience this for themselves, as a new Trader Vic’s is opening in October. It will be located on Golden Gate Avenue, in the Civic Center district, in the premises formerly occupied by Stars Restaurant. Thus, you will once again be able to get the drink that helped create a legend, and in so doing, became legendary itself.

1-877-7.MAI.TAI

www.tradervics.com

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