Quotes from: "Trader Vics Bartender Guide" revised by Trader Vic

"There has been a lot of conversation over the beginning of the Mai Tai. And I want to get the record straight. I originated the Mai Tai.

Many others have claimed credit. Some claim it was originated in Tahiti. All this aggravates my ulcer completely. The drink was never introduced by me into Tahiti except informally through our good friends Eastham and Carrie Guild.

In 1944, after success with several exotic rum drinks, I felt a new drink was needed. I thought about all the really successful drinks: martinis, Manhattans, daiquiris...all basically simple drinks.

I was at the service bar in my Oakland restaurant. I took down a bottle of seventeen-year-old rum. It was J. Wray Nephew from Jamaica--surprisingly golden in color, medium bodied, but with the rich pungent flavor particular to the Jamaican blends. The flavor of this great rum wasn't meant to be overpowered with heavy additions of fruit juices and flavorings. I took a fresh lime, added some orange curacao from Holland, a dash of rock candy syrup, and a dollop of French orgeat for its subtle almond flavor. I added a generous amount of shaved ice and shook it vigorously by hand to produce the marriage I was after. Half the lime shell went into each drink for color; and I stuck in a branch of fresh mint. I gave the first two of them to Ham and Carrie Guild, friends from Tahiti, who were there that night.

Carrie took one sip and said, "Mai Tai-Roa Ae." In Tahitian this means "Out of this world-the best." Well, that was that. I named the drink "Mai Tai."

The drink enjoyed great acceptance over the next few years in California, and in Seattle when we opened Trader Vic's there in 1948.

In 1953, I took the Mai Tai to the Hawaiian Islands when I went down for the Matson Steamship Lines-to formalize drinks for the bars at their Royal Hawaiian, Moana, and Surfrider hotels. Any old Kamaaina can tell you about this drink and of its rapid spread throughout the islands.

In 1954, we further introduced the Mai Tai when we included it among other new drinks in bar service for the American President Lines.

Now it is estimated that they serve several thousand Mai Tais daily in Honolulu alone; and we sell many more than that daily in our twenty Trader Vic's restaurants throughtout the world.

Anybody who says I didn't create this drink is a dirty stinker."