Mai Tais were the drink of choice in Elvis Presley’s movie “Blue Hawaii,” and were consumed liberally throughout the film. After all, who can resist a little umbrella in their drink? It appears Elvis was onto something, and this Saturday umbrellas abound as Don the Beachcomber at the Royal Kona Resort hosts the seventh annual Mai Tai Festival celebrating the legacy of Don the Beachcomber and the Mai Tai.
Mai Tais were the drink of choice in Elvis Presley’s movie “Blue Hawaii,” and were consumed liberally throughout the film. After all, who can resist a little umbrella in their drink? It appears Elvis was onto something, and this Saturday umbrellas abound as Don the Beachcomber at the Royal Kona Resort hosts the seventh annual Mai Tai Festival celebrating the legacy of Don the Beachcomber and the Mai Tai.
“It’s getting more fun every year with different followers,” said Jason Door, food and beverage manager at Don the Beachcomber at the Royal Kona Resort. “It’s really becoming a hit on the mainland, where the craft cocktail is becoming noticed. People are becoming more interested in going back to fresh ingredients in their mai tais and tropical drinks. There’s also a tiki following all the way from New York City to Portland, Ore.”
When mixed as intended, the classic mai tai is a cool combination of cold Jamaican rum, fresh limes, with a hint of orange and mint. One sip and all your cares are washed away like the warm surf on a tropical beach day. Unfortunately, many visitors to paradise are introduced to mai tais served out of a punch bowl at a cheap luau. These watered down versions of the real thing are made with cheap rum, canned pineapple juice and taste more like sweet lighter fluid than the infamous Polynesian nectar.
Mai tai comes from the Tahitian word “maitai” which means “good,” so if you haven’t experienced what a real “maitai” tastes like, now’s your chance. The festival has something for everyone, including a mai tai Marketplace from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., featuring local artisans and merchants. There will be a Battle of the BBQ from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and a Pool Party from 2:30 to 4 p.m. featuring live music from award-winning, Grammy nominated Hawaiian artist Henry Kapono. From 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., attendees can watch bartenders from around the world battle for the title of world’s best mai tai and a $10,000 cash prize.
“Community involvement is really growing,” said Door. “There are so many things going on, like the BBQ Cook-off at the luau grounds, and a pool party with a full band and lots of floaty toys. Later on in the evening we start the Mai Tai Mix off at center stage. It great to see everyone out enjoying themselves. Everyone from all over the island comes for the Mai Tai Festival. It’s a good time. We prepare for this for months. In fact, the day after the festival, we start planning for next year’s event.”
This fruity concoction is not without controversy. The battle over who invented the mai tai extends back to the 1930s, when Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron and Don “Don the Beachcomber” Beach both claimed to be the original inventors of the tropical libation. Both gentleman owned tiki bars in California and Hawaii, and both made valid arguments for this now tropical staple.
Don Beach opened a small restaurant in Hollywood in 1933, and decorated it with items he collected during his journeys in the South Pacific. He called it Don’s Beachcombers and offered potent rum-based cocktails, including one he called the Original Beachcomber Rum Concoction, later it became known as the Mai Tai. In 1947, Beach opened Don the Beachcomber restaurant in Waikiki and introduced the famous rum cocktail to Hawaii. Around the same time, Bergeron, opened a tropical themed restaurant in California called Trader Vic’s. Legend has it that Bergeron created a drink for visitors from Tahiti who with one sip proclaimed “mai tai roa ae,” which translates to “out of the world, the best.” He claimed that he named the drink the mai tai and began serving it at all his restaurants.
Bergeron is credited with saying, “There’s been a lot of conversation over the beginning of the Mai Tai, and I want to get the record straight. I originated the Mai Tai, but many others have claimed credit. All this aggravates my ulcer completely. Anyone who says I didn’t create this drink is a dirty stinker.”
Dirty stinker or not, if the mai tai is one of your favorite adult beverages, you won’t want to miss this annual tribute to one of Hawaii’s most famous cocktails.
For more information visit, www.donsmaitaifest.com.