Thaindian News

Melbourne, July 11 (ANI): 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 sprig of 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 wrote: “I told them I had just made a new drink that I 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 means ‘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.

The rise in Mai Tai’s popularity soon resulted in a shortage of the very limited production 17-year-old rum.

However, true to the original recipe, Belfast’s Merchant Hotel also uses the same rum.

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 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 1300dollars per glass, was officially named the World’s Most Expensive Cocktail by The Guinness Book of Records in 2009.

“The Merchant Hotel is the only bar in the world that has the capacity to make the authentic article; no other establishment in the world has a bottle of the rum,” The Herald Sun quoted Sean, as saying.

He added: “There is one shot left in the bottle, which is not for sale. The last cocktail was sold to Mr Ronald Mancini - a doctor from Los Angeles - about 6 months ago.” (ANI)