NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – Have you ever had the vacation in a glass known as a Mai Tai? Jeff “Beachbum” Berry tells us a little history behind the romantic, tropical drink.
Beachbum Berry says that a good name can make or break a drink, “The Mai Tai is a romantic, South Pacific sounding, exotic name. It rhymed. It was mellifluous, Mai Tai. You’d look on a menu and go, I’ll have a Mai Tai.”
The Mai Tai was invented in 1944 by a gentleman named Victor Bergeron, also known as Trader Vic. He was behind the bar with his head bartender one night, and they decided they were going to make the “finest rum drink ever created.” They spent all day working on it, and at the end of the day, he handed the drink to Carrie Guild. She tried it and she said, “Oh, Mai Tai, Roa Ae.” Roughly translated, Beachbum Berry says that’s Tahitian for awesome, and so the Mai Tai was born!
Trader Vic was most likely the first restaurateur serving drinks in Tiki bowls and Tiki mugs, ceramic mugs that he made specially. These bowls and mugs were not just things you could buy at the store.
In the 1970s, people started calling all kinds of frozen, supersweet, cruise ship drinks Mai Tais. Beachbum Berry says even nowadays many places don’t know how to make the drink. “You can go into a good, craft cocktail bar in all the capitals of the United States and Europe and ask for a Mai Tai. They’ll make you one, and they’ll make you a proper one. If you go into a chain restaurant or if you go into hundreds of other places, they’re still going to make you a bright red, horribly sweet drink and call it a Mai Tai.”
Click here to see Beachbum Berry make the perfect Mai Tai.