Canada's only magazine dedicated to distillers, spirits and cocktail culture.
The 11th edition of B.C.’s only magazine dedicated to cocktail and spirits culture brightens the season with a taste of the tropics.
Bright, airy and colourful, with a contemporary design that embraces both mid-century and Art Deco motifs, H Tasting Lounge at The Westin Bayshore, Vancouver, is certainly one of the city’s most elegant cocktail spaces.
But its beauty goes far beyond plush pastel furnishings and dramatic crystal chandeliers.
• 1.5 oz fresh pineapple juice
• 0.5 oz fresh orange juice
• 0.25 oz charred pineapple falernum (see recipe below)
• 1.75 oz pandan coconut syrup (see recipe below)
• Ms Betters Pineapple Star Anise bitters
• 2 oz Flor de Cana 7 Year Old rum
• Garnish: freshly grated nutmeg
Place all ingredients in a tiki mug and fill halfway with shaved ice; swizzle, then fill with more shaved ice. Grate fresh nutmeg over top and serve with a straw. Serves 1.
Donn Beach—a.k.a. Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt, a.k.a. Don the Beachcomber—reportedly invented his version of the drink in 1933, when it was called a Mai Tai Swizzle.• 1 oz gold rum
• 1.5 oz dark rum
• 1 oz (30 mL) grapefruit juice
• 0.75 oz lime juice
• 0.5 oz Cointreau or triple sec
• 0.25 oz falernum
• 6 drops Pernod
• Dash of Angostura bitters
• Mint sprig to garnish
Victor Bergeron, founder of Trader Vic’s restaurants, claims to be the originator of the Mai Tai, back in 1944. This is his version of the drink.• 2 oz aged rum
• 1 oz fresh lime juice
• 0.5 oz orgeat syrup (such as Giffard)
• 0.5 oz Cointreau or Curaçao
• Mint sprig to garnish
Order the Mai Tai at your peril. It can be one of the world’s greatest cocktails but, like the Bellini and the Margarita, in the wrong hands, it can be an unmitigated disaster. Instead of a delicately fragrant yet powerfully boozy elixir, you are as likely to receive a dispiriting glass of something sweet, sticky and suspiciously hued.
Any bartender who knows their way around the classics should be able to make a decent Mai Tai, but for the real deal, you really want to seek out a tiki expert.
Notifications