brown_mai-tai_6-4_post_Sarah Ackerman.jpg  Sarah Ackerman/flickr
To try Derek Brown's version of a Mai Tai, click here for the
recipe.  There's something about sitting on the beach in Waikiki
while the sun is setting, watching a former Ms. Hawaii dance the
hula as the breeze and syncopated plunk of the ukulele work in
unison, feeling and sounding like a whirling fan, that simply
makes a Mai Tai taste better. Better than the untrained hand of
waiter at a Thai restaurant carelessly pouring cheap rums,
grenadine, and bottled juices into a gigantic bowl that is to be
a faux Mai Tai, garnished with orange, lime, lemon, cherry, and
fountain straw. (This is what Tiki-expert Jeff "Beachbum" Berry
refers to as "crayon-colored liquid candy.")  Exotic locale and
setting sun aside, the secret to a great Mai Tai is that you
should taste the rum, and the drink should be otherwise tart.
Nothing like the "Mai Thai" described above. If done just so,
the Mai Tai earns its place among the cannon of great drinks:
Manhattan, Mar