Mai Tai at the House Without at Key, Halekulani
Here, coconut palms sway, birds do sing and the Royal Hawaiian stands out from blocks away — a pink and green garden oasis nestled among Waikiki’s high-rises. The hotel re-opened a year ago last November after extensive renovations.
Joni Mitchell wrote the familiar “Big Yellow Taxi” (1970) after her first visit to Hawai’i. As the song goes: “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot. With a pink hotel, a boutique and a swinging hot spot. Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”
True, but I’m pretty happy with what they’ve got down at the Mai Tai Bar at the Royal Hawaiian. There is much debate over the origin of the Mai Tai, but to me the cocktail is Hawaii in a glass. Aloha.
Mai Tai, Royal Hawaiian
1 ounce Barcardi Silver rum
1/2 ounce Orgeat syrup (made from almonds, sugar and rose water or orange-flower water)
1/2 ounce orange Curaco
1 ounce orange juice
2 ounces pineapple juice
1/2 ounce Whalers dark rum
1. Combine all of the ingredients except the Whalers Dark Rum in an old-fashioned style glass over shaved ice. Carefully pour the dark rum on top.
2. Garnish with a pineapple wedge and a parasol with a skewered Maraschino cherry and fresh lime wedge.
Mai Tai taste test, Chucks Steakhouse & Hau Tree Lanai, Moana Surfrider
