The Spirit World

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit The Merchant Hotel in Belfast Northern Ireland. Wow. What an experience.

The bar manager at the Merchant is Sean Muldoon, and he is clearly a man with the sort of passion, drive, and vision that I love to see coordinating the activities behind the cocktails that I order. Through his efforts, he has created in Belfast one of the finest cocktail bars in the world, and built up a young and energetic staff which shares his dedication to the craft.

The ice he uses in his drinks is hand-cut from large blocks. He has an array of tinctures and bitters which he and his staff expertly use in their drinks. Atop his bar are several perfume atomizers in which he stores subtle essences that will be sprayed on certain cocktails in order to give them the right aromatic finish. His cocktail menu recalls the most classic of the classics, and more importantly they are regularly ordered by his customers.

Scanning through their cocktail menu you will encounter sections dedicated to early morning risers (Corpse Revivers, Milk Punches, Fizzes, Sours, Hot Drinks, and Champagne Tonics), afternoon starters (Cocktails, Swizzles, Cobblers, Sangarees, Daisies, Fixes, Punches Bowls, Cups, and Shrubs), evening refreshments (Aperitifs, Flutes, Coolers, Highballs, Sparkling Sours, Slings, Mules, Juleps, Smashes, and Tropical Drinks), and their menu then lists out their “Connoisseurs Club”, which is a selection of specific cocktails that they prepare in a “silver”, “gold”, and “platinum” variation. At each level the ingredients used for the drink are elevated to a higher and higher level so the discerning palate can choose exactly the experience they wish to have that evening.

It is for one specific drink on their Connoisseurs Club menu that the bar at the Merchant Hotel has gained a certain amount of notoriety. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, it is the “most expensive cocktail commercially available”. Now typically I would roll my eyes at such attempts at bravado. Often these drinks are “most expensive” because they include a diamond in the drink, or the drink is served in a “souvenir” glass of finely cut crystal, or it is just a typical cocktail which they’ve simply chosen to use an absurdly priced spirit for no other reason than to call attention to themselves. Here however we have something slightly different.

As listed on the Trader Vic’s website, the origins of the Mai Tai are recounted by Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron as follows:

I was at the service bar in my Oakland restaurant. I took down a bottle of 17-year-old rum. It was J. Wray Nephew from Jamaica; surprisingly golden in color, medium bodied, but with the rich pungent flavor particular to the Jamaican blends. The flavor of this great rum wasn’t meant to be overpowered with heavy additions of fruit juices and flavorings. I took a fresh lime, added some orange curacao from Holland, a dash of Rock Candy Syrup, and a dollop of French Orgeat, for its subtle almond flavor. A generous amount of shaved ice and vigorous shaking by hand produced the marriage I was after. Half the lime shell went in for color … I stuck in a branch of fresh mint and gave two of them to Ham and Carrie Guild, friends from Tahiti, who were there that night. Carrie took one sip and said, “Mai Tai - Roa Ae”. In Tahitian this means “Out of This World - The Best”. Well, that was that. I named the drink “Mai Tai”.

At the heart of the original recipe, was the 17 year old Wray & Nephew Jamaican Rum. This particular rum eventually went out of production and became unavailable, and so Trader Vic’s had to modify their recipe to use different rums, thus loosing forever the “original” Mai Tai.

But all was not completely lost. A while back few bottles of the original 17 year old Wray & Nephew rum surfaced. Of those bottles, only two remain. One is in the permanent spirits library of Trader Vic’s corporation, never to be used. The second is at the Merchant Hotel, where they will proudly use it to serve you a Mai Tai as Trader Vic originally conceived it. Assuming of course you can pay the price. As you might expect, the rarity of the rum demands a price to accompany it, so this ultra rare Mai Tai will put you back 750 pounds, or 1,450 US Dollars. Mai Tai – Roa AE!

Mai Tai Recipe
From The Merchant Hotel, as used in The World’s most Expensive Cocktail

• 40 mls Wray & Nephew 17yr Rum
• 10 mls Orange Curacao
• 25 mls Freshly Squeezed Lime Juice
• 10 mls Orgeat
• 10 mls Rock Candy Syrup
• 5 mls Sugar Syrup

Shaken and Strained into a rocks glass, filled with cubed made with Fiji water (the purest water on earth) ice. Garnished with a lime wedge and Fresh Mint.

And before you ask… yes, I did have a wonderful Mai Tai at the bar, but no, it wasn’t “the” Mai Tai.