Trader Vic’s and the Original Mai Tai
In 1944, Vic Bergeron, owner of Trader Vic’s, displayed Edgar Leeteg’s black velvet oil paintings to embellish his restaurant walls in Oakland, California, following in the footsteps of the Los Angeles restaurants Don the Beachcomber and Seven Seas.
Noteworthy, a few months earlier, on August 30, 1944, Vic had drinks at his establishment with two friends, Eastham and Caroline Guild, Tahitian expatriates. With the threat of WWII, the Guilds left Tahiti in 1940 and moved to the San Francisco area.
Bergeron fixed them a new concoction of expensive aged rums and lime juice over ice. Caroline Guild exclaimed as they sipped his delightful drink, “Mai Tai Roa Ae,” the Tahitian phrase for “Out of this world. The best!”
This was the birth of the famous drink, the Mai Tai.
Caroline GuildCaroline Guild, who fished big billfish with Zane Grey, named the Mai Tai. After nearly twenty years in Tahiti, she wrote Rainbow in Tahiti in 1948.
The recipe for Trader Vic’s 1944 Mai Tai:
1 oz Dark Jamaican Rum
1 oz Aged Martinique Rum
½ oz Orange Curacao
¼ oz Orgeat Syrup
¼ oz Rock Candy Syrup
1 oz Fresh Lime Juice
Shake and pour the ice in the glass. Add garnish with ½ Lime Shell and Mint.
[image error]
