Talk:Mai Tai

Falernum

the recipe calls for "flaernum"... I googled it and there are only 12 hits on the entire web. I think it could not be right.

• You are wrong. The correct spelling is falernum. And it is the correct ingredient if you are making the Don the Beachcomber mai tai, which is 10 times better than the Trader Vic version -- or any other, for that matter.... Hayford Peirce 18:46, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

The ingredient is called "Falernum". It is available in limited supply throughout the US. Contact your local distributor. I recently bought a case of John D. Taylor Velvet Falernum from a store in the midwest. Falernum is used in many wonderful Tiki cocktails, but not the Mai Tai. With respect to the opinion above, there is only one Mai Tai. It was invented, as shown in the article, by Trader Vic. Don the Beachcomber invented many wonderful drinks, some using Falernum. However, he did not invent the Mai Tai. And contrary to popular belief, a Mai Tai contains no pineapple. Making a drink called a Mai Tai and using different ingredients is like making a Singapore Sling using Rum and Coke. Unfortunately, the Mai Tai is one of those popular drink names that is thrown around casually by many drinking establishments.

If you read a long newspaper article by a Honolulu columnist that concerns a lunch he arranged between Don and Vic towards the ends of their careers, Vic admits that Don invented it before he did. A google search will find this. It's also repeated in the Don the Beach. recipe book that his niece published a couple of years ago. Falernum can also be bought on the Net from daVinci in Seattle, who sell their flavored syrups widely -- but not the falernum. Hayford Peirce 21:04, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

The article is several degrees of hearsay. Trader Vic had a signed affidavit affirming that he created the drink in 1944. While it is entirely possible that Donn Beach created "a" drink called the Mai Tai, it is not "the" famous Mai Tai, and the flavors of each are so different it is impossible to think that TV's drink is an attempt to duplicate the DB recipe (or the other way around for that matter). In the end, Trader Vic's affidavit would hold up in court--Donn Beach's hearsay would not. --ThirtyOneKnots 15:57, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

Anyway, Vic’s lime-orange-almond flavor blend with medium and dark rums is one of the world’s best tastes. The article should reflect the fact that the “1944” recipe is the type of Mai Tai that delivers that. 96.90.200.185 (talk) 23:06, 11 December 2018 (UTC)

Spelling

The article states "An Internet search for references coupled with the word "rum" shows 40,600 hits for "Maitai" and 38,400 hits for "Mai Tai", so correct usage for this drink can apparently be either one word or two."
Well, I did Google "maitai rum", and actually got a lot of hits that actually use "mai tai". So I Googled

"mai tai" rum -"maitai"

I got 165,000 hits; then I tried

"maitai" rum -"mai tai"

and got 9,250 hits (as well as a query from Google asking if I really meant "mai tai"), and some of those entries were camel-case (ambiguous). So using the famed Google test, it seems the two-word version is preferred almost 18 to 1. Just to be on the safe side, I checked Oxford, Merriam-Webster, and American Heritage online; they only list the two-word version. So I'm pulling the spelling sentence. Cheers. --SigPig 06:29, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

"Maitai" is not tahitian

Incidently the tahitian word is not "maitai" but "maita'i" ! where you find a glottal stop between the second a and i and you can easily understand that when you discover that the same word is "meitaki" in Marquesan language or "maitaki" in Cook islands maori.... stefjourdan@caramail.com — Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.3.229.26 (talk) 18:52, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Need a better photo

The drink in the photo was obviously not made from either the IBA or the Trader Vic recipe. I turned up a possibility on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kchrist/2980427956/ Rees11 (talk) 00:04, 4 February 2010 (UTC)

I try to drink at least one Mai Tai a week at a various Oahu restaurants. Perhaps I'll attempt to create a photo journal of sorts... :) Aloha --Travis Thurston+ 01:20, 4 February 2010 (UTC)

I agree with user Rees11. An IBA Mai Tai is not so dark, more like this http://iba-world.com/cocktails/mai-tai/ Libido~enwiki (talk) 18:19, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

I added a photo taken at Trader Vic'sKevin Crossman (talk) 22:14, 7 July 2017 (UTC)

History

An anonymous user changed the "purported" place of invention from Trader Vic's in Oakland to 555 California St office in San Francisco. A small amount of googling didn't turn up any such suggestion before that edit was made (it has been repeated many times since, however, including on some menus). Also of note, the office building at 555 California Street wasn't there in 1944. So, I reverted, without the passive voice, and with a citation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ElApuesto (talk • contribs) 01:32, 10 June 2015 (UTC)

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I have no idea how all this robot stuff works but I did find that the page for the new link never loaded. The web archive version loaded okay. Kevin Crossman (talk) 22:49, 24 December 2017 (UTC)

"official" recipe

I removed the recipe from the article, arguing that there are many different recipes, but it was returned with the claim that this is the "official" one. Since the article says two places claim to have invented the drink, with very different recipes, it's kind of weird (at least) to say there's an "official" recipe. So why is this particular one listed - and where does it come from, anyway? There's no source.

I would prefer to remove it - the article has already given an indication of the typical ingredients and people can find recipes very easily online - but at the very least we need to give the direct source. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 13:58, 20 April 2018 (UTC)

User:Kevdo has updated the recipe, but the article still needs to say where it comes from. There's no sourcing for it. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 15:53, 20 April 2018 (UTC)

There's also an ingredient list/recipe in the infobox - so the information is duplicated in the article. Remember: WP:notCookbook! - DavidWBrooks (talk) 15:37, 22 April 2018 (UTC)

Guide

I have a 437 page “Trader Vic Bartender’s Guide” reprint from 1948 (originally published in 1947) that has no reference to a Mai Tai. I also have an original 1946 copy of “Trader Vic’s Book of Food and Drink”, again, with no reference to a “Mai Tai”. Buggmann 55 (talk) 18:38, 21 August 2019 (UTC)

Recipe

To return to a discussion from a year ago, we still have a detailed but unsourced recipe, in an article which talks about many different recipes. With no indication of why this particular recipe is given, I will remove it. If you think it should be there, it needs a source to show its historical importance, not just one way to make it - because we are not a cookbook: Wikipedia:NOTCOOKBOOK - DavidWBrooks (talk) 19:47, 21 August 2019 (UTC)

Secret ingredients

@Kevdo: We don't remove properly sourced material just because we disagree with it. If you'd like to add an opposing view, please do so, with a proper source citation (in the article, not in the edit summary). GA-RT-22 (talk) 18:30, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

Do you have a suggestion for how to address this? One author claims something, uncited. We leave this in and then add something like "Actually, there were plenty of published recipes that showed the ingredients weren't top secret". Like that? Kevin Crossman (talk) 18:39, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

I mean at what point does a falsehood get removed just because one guy published a book about it? Kevin Crossman (talk) 18:40, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

You haven't cited any of your sources so I can't give an answer for this particular case. In general the way to handle it is described at WP:YESPOV. GA-RT-22 (talk) 19:02, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

Hopefully the changes just added actually reduce the "stating of opinions as facts". Berry does use the term "unpublished" in the referenced source. Kevin Crossman (talk) 20:46, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

You forgot to mention that you have a conflict of interest. I will put a pointer to the relevant policy on your talk page. GA-RT-22 (talk) 21:12, 24 January 2023 (UTC)

Dark rum?

I don't think this drink belongs in Category:Cocktails with dark rum. The recipe calls for amber rum, which is listed as a separate grade from dark at Rum#Grades; and "Martinique molasses rhum" which doesn't really exist any more, the only example being Le Galion Grande Arôme, which I would not consider a dark rum. I don't know anyone who makes a mai tai with something like Gosling's. GA-RT-22 (talk) 22:04, 3 November 2024 (UTC)

While we respectfully disagree on the molasses rhum not being dkrk, since that's probably WP:SYNTH, I just changed the category to the more generic Category:Cocktails with rum parent category. RevelationDirect (talk) 18:45, 6 November 2024 (UTC)

More categories

@RevelationDirect: Why is this in Category:1953 establishments in Hawaii and Category:Food and drink introduced in the 1950s? Establishments are "organizations, settlements, companies, or other things which involve a distinct body of people with a shared purpose." I don't see how a drink fits that definition. And the mai tai was introduced in 1944. GA-RT-22 (talk) 22:52, 5 November 2024 (UTC)

I read the Hawaii section and completely missed that there are competing claims about origin before that paragraph. That was unintentional so I just removed both categories.

Sorry about that and thanks for bringing it to my attention! RevelationDirect (talk) 18:47, 6 November 2024 (UTC)