A first fancy drink for me was a Mai Tai cocktail. When Bruce and I were first married, we moved to St. Louis. We lived in South St. Louis and were fortunate enough to in an area of a global melting pot. We shopped at local groceries that included Asian, Italian and Hispanic markets. In addition to the markets, there were such good restaurants of so many cultures.
The King and I was a place that Bruce and I would love to go. We sat on cushions on the floor, ordered Thai food, and enjoyed tropical drinks. I would almost always order a Mai Tai. Okay, to be honest, I ordered 2. But that was the limit. The drink was so delicious, and the perfect sweet for the spicy food.
I have made a few adjustments to the traditional Mai Tai by using Amaretto instead of orgeat syrup as well as adding orange and pineapple juice. If you want the real deal, leave out the juice, and use orgeat instead of amaretto.
Equipment
- Fancy cocktail glass
Ingredients
- 1 ounce Light Rum
- 1 ounce Dark Rum
- 1 ounce Cointreau
- .5 ounce Amaretto
- 1 Lime juiced
- .5 Orange Juiced
- 1 ounce Pineapple Juice
- 2 Cherries Can use Northern or bottled
- 1 pineapple spear for garnish
- 1 orange slice for garnish
- Splash of cherry simple syrup for color optional
Instructions
- Fill a tall glass with crushed ice, and set in freezer.
- Squeeze lime and orange juice into a cocktail shaker. Add rum, Amaretto, pineapple juice and Cointreau. Add one large cube of ice, and shake.
- Strain into the ice filled glass. Top with garnish, and the splash of cherry simple syrup.
Nutrition
A few more cocktails to try:
This is the perfect summer cocktail. Reminds me a little of my favorite amaretto stone sour, but with a tropical summer twist.
Sarah,
Oh yay! Your cocktail sounds amazing! We hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Best,
Dina and Bruce
This is not even close to a mai tai. A real mai tai is lime, dry orange Curacao, rum, and orgeat. This recipe doesn’t even have orgeat. What you posted is some kind of Marriott hotel version.
Kevin,
As I noted in this, we chose to use Amaretto. We know many want the original. Very cool. This is our version. Thank you for your comment.
Best,
Dina and Bruce
I liked it! I added a touch of agave syrup after tasting. I think my pineapple juice was a bit old… Well it definitely was.. But I realised after I had added most of the other ingredients… very boozy! Would have been 5 stars but I probably made it wrong and the taste was slightly unbalanced perhaps my mistake again as I also just went 30ml lime and 30 orange.
Reece,
So glad you gave this a try and liked it. Could have been a bit limey! Hope you try it again! Thank you for your rating and comments!
Best,
Dina and Bruce