Around this time of year I start to get jealous of others who are jetting off to warmer climes while I’m trudging through the snow and slush here. My husband and I used to go to Mexico around this time—we sipped Piña Coladas on the beach and tipped back Margaritas and nibbled on fresh salsa, guacamole, and chips poolside and in local restaurants. Ah. Now we’re changing our one-year-old’s diapers and I spent last evening filling out Valentine cards for our preschooler, and wedging little rolls of SweeTarts in them. Well, someday we’ll get back. We will. We will. In the meantime, perhaps mixing up a tropical concoction at home could bring us and other snowbound sorts on an armchair journey to warmer points south.
The Mai Tai is a classic drink to give you a taste of the tropics. It’s said to have been created by Victor Bergeron, the original owner of Trader Vic’s restaurant, who said he created it for Tahitian friends, who, on tasting it reportedly exclaimed, “Mai Tai!” meaning “out of this world.” Mixologist Kathy Casey, who contributed this version to Drinks magazine, notes that mango rum adds a fantastic flavor punch to this already tasty tropical cocktail. I can almost feel the warm breezes already…Maybe some more fruit and a tiny paper umbrella would help, too.
Mango Mai Tai
Makes 1 cocktail
3/4 oz. Parrot Bay mango rum
3/4 oz. Myers’s dark rum
3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
1 oz. pineapple juice
1/2 oz. orgeat syrup
Garnish: orange wedge
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add rums, lime juice, pineapple juice, and orgeat syrup. Shake and pour into an Old-Fashioned glass, topping with more ice if needed. Garnish with orange wedge.
