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A Mai Tai, served in Belfast’s The Merchant Hotel, has earned the distinction of being the world’s most expensive cocktail. The concoction comprises the same ingredients as the original, first poured in 1944 at Trader Vic’s, a South Seas-style bar-and-restaurant in Oakland, US Trader Vic’s founder, Victor Jules Bergeron Jr, narrated the origins of his Mai Tai in his book Frankly Speaking: Trader Vic’s Own Story. Bergeron wrote: "We talked about creating a drink that would be the finest drink we could make, using the finest ingredients we could find." Bergeron and his bartender came up with the drink as the duo were sitting together one evening. The blend: 2 ounces 17-year-old J. Wray & Nephew Jamaican rum, 1/2 ounce French Garnier Orgeat, 1/2 ounce Holland DeKuyper Orange Curacao, 1/4 ounce rock candy syrup, and the juice of one fresh lime. Bergeron wrote: "We poured the ingredients over shaved ice in a double old-fashioned glass...shook it well, added one spent lime shell and garnished it with a fresh mint." Just as he was about to taste it, a waiter told Bergeron that his friends, Eastham and Carrie Guild from Tahiti, were at the restaurant. Bergeron said he told them he had just made a new drink that hadn’t even tasted yet. Carrie and Ham tasted theirs, and Carrie asked Ham: "What do you think of it?" "It’s Mai Tai," he said. "Mai Tai roa ae." "I asked what in the hell that meant, and Ham said in Tahitian it meant out of this world, the best. That’s the name of this drink, then. It’s Mai Tai. It’s out of this world, Bergeron wrote. According to The Merchant’s bar manager, Sean Muldoon, the hotel sourced a bottle of the ultra-rare 17-year-old J Wray & Nephew Jamaican Ruma a couple of years ago. Since then it has been used as the base spirit of The Original Trader Vic’s Mai Tai on offer at the hotel, which, at a cost of $1300 per glass, was officially named the world’s most expensive cocktail by The Guinness Book of Records. — ANI
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