Sometimes you just feel the urge for a tiki cocktail. I mean, they have a multitude of ingredients, tropical flavors, sweetness, sourness, rum and everything a growing body needs. When you need to escape, even if it’s just in your imagination, pouring yourself something from the tiki collection is the way to go. However, what if you want something tiki, but a little different? Fancy you should ask, we have just the drink for you: the Spiced Mai Tai.

What’s the difference between an Original Mai Tai and the Spiced Mai Tai? Spices, der.

With the Original Mai Tai, you get your usual suspects of lime, rum, curacao, orgeat and some simple syrup. Put those together and it’s a pretty fantastic drink, but you’ve probably had one before.

It’s time to broaden your tiki repertoire, build on that classic and add a little spice to the sweet. This is where the liqueurs from Sukkah Hill Spirits come join the party.

They have two: Etrog and Besamim. If you’ve never tried these — you’re missing out on some great drinks, so go get some to try — here’s a sketch of their flavors: the Etrog is citrusy, lightly floral and herbaceous with some hints of orange blossoms; the Besamim is spicy with hints of cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and basically all of the “traditional holiday spices.”

Honestly, they’re pretty great by themselves over ice — which is exactly how you should drink them after you’ve enjoyed a few Spiced Mai Tais.

What we did was take the Original Mai Tai recipe, reduce the amount of rum and replace it with the Besamim — it amps up the spice level. Next, we kicked out the simple syrup and put in the Etrog — giving us a fuller citrus flavor to work with the lime juice.

Once you put it all together, you’re in for a treat. It’s not too sweet, not too sour or too spicy. What you’re getting is a drink that has all of the notes of an Original Mai Tai, but with added citrus (awesome!) and extra complexity from the spices (double awesome!).

If you like tiki drinks, it’s well worth your time hunting down both Etrog and Besamim from Sukkah Hill Spirits to make the Spiced Mai Tai.

Now, let’s get our tiki action going!

January 27th, 2015 | by morgan