The Search for the Ultimate Mai Tai

Hawaiian ʻŌkolehao is a modern version of Hawai’i’s first distilled spirit, originally distilled from a mash made from Ti roots but these days the product also includes spirits distilled from Hawaiian cane.

Our trip to see the Giants play at Oracle Park started early with a visit to nearby Cavaña, a rooftop bar and restaurant that’s across McCovey Cove and part of the LUMA Hotel.

My company gave me Friday off for a “wellness day” so Mrs.

We’re sending healing thoughts to our buddy DJ Ship Rex who is recovering from hip surgery.

We thank Judd and the entire team at The Fink for the opportunity to speak about the Mai Tai and organizing the “Sunday School” event in Napa today.

Livermore’s Rosetta Roasting coffee roastery is going full tiki for their evening cocktail persona and adopting Tikeasy as the branding for their summer program.

A gift from Mrs.

If you’re into themed bars, Wizard & Wands offers a Harry Potter-inspired experience featuring good cocktails, immersive decor, and some special effects.

This Dr Funk original features mezcal, rum, Aperol, coconut, pineapple, and fire!

After having the individual Scorpion at Trader Vic’s last week I thought I’d revisit this classic at home.

Mai Tai media week continues with another new video to watch this weekend.

Get your tickets now for a special Mai Tai seminar and cocktail tasting at Napa’s leading cocktail bar, The Fink.

Look who we found on the way to Zombie Village, the original Tiki Bob at the corner of Post and Taylor.

Trader Vic’s Emeryville hosted a special showing of a deleted scene from the acclaimed The Donn of Tiki documentary, highlighting archival footage of Trader Vic plus commentary about Vic from luminaries and experts.

The newish YouTube channel Bamboo & Bitters welcomed me to The Fo’c’sle, the home bar and lounge of Pete and Andrea who serve as the hosts and producers of the channel.

After experiencing a blackout during our visit last year, Ray and I tempted fate by returning the McMenamins Anderson School / North Short Lagoon complex in Bothell and having dinner and drinks upstairs in Nui Nui.

Business took me up north, offering a prime opportunity to visit The Jungle Bird, Sacramento’s leading tiki bar.

New Luck Toy is a 21+ Chinese restaurant and bar in West Seattle that isn’t really tiki aside from a couple stools, but does provide excellent cocktails and an immersive space that will appeal to fans of the genre.

I’d been to Seattle many times but for various reasons never visited longtime tiki bar Hula Hula, in part due to its karaoke focus and rep for divey cocktails.

Does the world need another book of tiki recipes?

Each Trader Vic’s location has a signature cocktail that initially is available only at that location, though sometimes these cocktails come to other Trader Vic’s locations.

After dinner at Rumba, we were seated in Inside Passage next door.

Nothing really new to report, Mai Tai fans.

We had a great time at the quarterly Rum Asylum rum club meeting at Dr.

Forbidden Island recently updated the rum blend in their Classic Mai Tai and I’m pleased to report that it is definitely an upgrade.

We’ve had two great experiences at Alter Ego recently so wanted to highlight the excellent cocktail and food program.

Wednesday night found us at Dr.

Dr.

Wilfred’s Lounge is about to start this year’s Mai Tai Madness tournament and so we’re saluting last year’s champ which we had with dinner a couple days ago.

We visited Livermore’s Nightcaps at Rosetta a few times over the past year, but so far hadn’t made it out for their tiki themed Thursday cocktail menu.

This cocktail was a highlight of Sunday’s happy hour special event at Trader Vic’s Emeryville organized by some local tiki folks.

We’d visited Faith & Spirits in downtown San Carlos a couple months ago in the waning days of the holiday pop-ups, and we had an impromptu visit to town for dinner so decided to have some cocktails.

We’ve been to Trader Vic’s Emeryville a couple times this week and while I did indulge with a fruity Guava Tai, I decided to check out some of the newer items from the Emeryville Originals section.

Having brunch at Red Dwarf on the Sunday of our weekend has been our tradition for the last few Vegas trips.

This vintage recipe recently popped up on the Make and Drink YouTube channel, where Derek described the vague history of this drink.

We found time to check out one of Las Vegas’ newest tiki bars by visiting Glitter Gulch Tiki in downtown.

The first event in a planned monthly series started this week at Zombie Village as “Rum Champion” Bryan Inman hosted a Rum Curious Club rum tasting event.

Our weekend tour of themed bars and restaurants was highlighted by a visit at opening to Viking Mike’s Alpine Yurt Bar in Vegas’ Arts District.

Prowl is a jungle themed lounge in Las Vegas’ arts district, next door to Stray Pirate and co-owned by the some of the same crew.

Our trip to Vegas started at the San Jose Airport with some dinner and drinks at the Trader Vic’s Outpost.

We’ve had some great times at Pagan Idol, still offering great cocktails and a fun space to relax in downtown San Francisco. 2017 visit Cheers to all crew members past and present.

Excalibur recently renovated their show lounge into a tiki theme, which was met with skepticism by many in the tiki community.

The sample was traded several times before landing in a little bottle courtesy our buddy Marshall who popped over for a round at the Trader Vic’s Speakeasy event yesterday.

Shhh.. don’t tell anyone.

This was the one drink on Dr.

This was a pretty good pairing the other night when I went to Dr.

We’ve been doing this deep dive into Mai Tais thing for a while now and I do feel it is important to challenge assumptions and revisit past experiences to see if products or the palate has changed over the years.

We always enjoy visits to Wilfred’s Lounge in downtown Napa, which is still doing a great job offering a Hawaiian-leaning food menu and a variety of exotic cocktails.

We took a trek up to Napa to view the Lighted Art Festival, with displays across the charming downtown.

Our favorite Livermore cocktail spot has a New Orleans inspired menu to celebrate Mardi Gras, available now through February 13.