By Request

BETTY SHIMABUKURO

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Halekulani mai tai owes
its renown to rum blend

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Ah, the mai tai. The taste of paradise, a liquid encapsulation of sunset on the beach.

Or, just another fruity drink with a paper umbrella sticking out of it.

Whatever your point of view, this rummy concoction is first among tropical drinks and in Hawaii we're stuck with it.

But a mai tai is not a mai tai is not a mai tai. Bars and restaurants have their own formulas, some relying on premade mixes, others taking pride in doing it all from scratch. Quality is often a factor of how much the bar spends on rum.

Examine enough mai tai recipes and a few standards emerge: Must have several types of rum. Must have the almond-flavored orgeat syrup. Must have a sweetener. Must have a citrusy juice (lemon, lime, grapefruit or pineapple). Falernum, a ginger-lime juice, is found in several, but not all, preparations.

Anna Wallenstein, of Dallas, a recent visitor to Hawaii, is a believer in the mai tai she enjoyed at Orchids at the Halekulani hotel. "It was a terrific version with dark rum floating on top," she wrote.

Curtis Hong, bartender at House Without a Key, which provides mixed drinks for all the Halekulani restaurants, says it's the blend of high-quality rums that makes the hotel's mai tais so special. Bacardi Gold, Bacardi Select and Lemon Heart 151 all go into a mai tai glass, with the 151 forming the dark layer on top that Wallenstein remembers so well.

Further distinctions: Halekulani bartenders make their own mai tai base out of a combination of syrups, and they don't use pineapple juice (or paper umbrellas). Their citrus juice of choice is lemon.

Hong said they serve at least 100 mai tais a night, making it easily the most popular mixed drink. They mix up juice, syrups and rum for 40 glasses at a time, adding ice and that final layer of 151 as the drinks are ordered.

The formula is simple; the liquid ingredients are available at most liquor stores. Buy rock candy syrup, or make your own simple syrup (boil 2 parts sugar in 1 part water for five minutes).

To measure, use a 1-ounce shot glass, and eyeball the proportions (half an ounce equals half a shot glass, etc.), or use a tablespoon. If you're making several drinks at a time, you can make up a larger quantity of the mai tai mix ahead of time, then pour 1-1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) over ice with the rums as you serve up each glass.

Halekulani Mai Tai

3/4 ounce (1-1/2 tablespoons) Bacardi Gold rum
3/4 ounce (1-1/2 tablespoons) Bacardi Select rum
1-1/4 ounce (2-1/2 tablespoons) lemon juice
1/2 ounce (1 tablespoon) Lemon Heart 151 rum
>> Mai tai mix:
1/2 ounce (1 tablespoon) orgeat syrup
1/2 ounce (1 tablespoon) orange curacao
1/2 ounce (1 tablespoon) rock candy syrup (simple syrup)

Combine mai tai mix ingredients and pour over crushed ice. Add Bacardi rums and lemon juice. Gently pour Lemon Heart rum on top so it floats.

Garnish with lime wedge, lime wheel, sugar-cane stick, mint leaf and a vanda orchid. Serves 1.

Nutritional information unavailable.

Food Stuffs: Morsels

Send queries along with name and phone number to:
"By Request," Honolulu Star-Bulletin,
500 Ala Moana, No. 7-210, Honolulu 96813.
Or send e-mail to bshimabukuro@starbulletin.com

Asterisk (*) after nutritional analyses in the Body & Soul section indicates calculations by Joannie Dobbs of Exploring New Concepts, a nutritional consulting firm.