Allow me to help Walters. In my mind their are only 2 "versions" of the Mai
Tai, The Trader Vic version (my personal fav) or the Donn Beach version. I'm
sure you'll find the recipes in the link that G has given you. Anyway, to
answer your other questions:
1. Never us Amaretto in a mai tai, the drink calls for orgeat syrup which is a
non-alcoholic almond sugar. It works particularly well with rum and balances
the sour (the lime). FYI Amaretto is not almond; it's made with apricot
kernels.
2. Curacaos. Orange curacao is basically a liqueur (about 60% proof) made with
the peel of bitter oranges. I think that this works well as again it
compliments the rum & the almond flavour in the mai tai.
3. See point 1!
4. Trader Vic used a 17yr old Wray & Nephew which has been "out of stock" for
decades. Many bartenders mix together a golden rum with a dark rum to get a
similar flavour. Personally I use an aged rum and find that Mount Gay XO works
particularly well. I would also say that Appleton V/X works well (and it's
cheaper), Appleton Extra is also great, Goslings Gold is another but i
wouldn't recommend a white rum, white rums (especially the standard ones)
simply don't have the taste/flavour profile that a mai tai commands. Malibu,
hmmmmm, well, strictly speaking Malibu isn't a rum, it's a coconut liqueur and
has no place anywhere near a mai tai! Spiced rums tend to reply on Vanilla for
their "spice" so you might find it a little too sweet, although Four Square is
a great spiced rum.
5. Rums are different due to production. Most of the rums that one would use
in a mai tai are molasses based, but the aging process in the Caribbean
produces different flavour profiles due to the barrels used, temperature etc
etc.
6. A mai tai (IMO) doesn't need sugar as you're using the orgeat.
7. I don't really know what you mean by "roll" but to make a Mai Tai, put your
rum, orgeat, curacao and FRESH lime into a shaker with ice, shake it nice and
hard and strain into a double old fashioned glass filled with crushed ice. I
would never blend a mai tai.
8. If you wanted to make a "pre-mix" i guess you could get a bottle 4:1
rum/curacao if you wanted to. Get 2oz of that into a shaker, but a mai tai is
easy to make so i wouldn't bother. And slushy? I don't know, leave it on the
bar for 5 mins!
Hope all that helps.
N
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