‘Tis the Season for a Classic 1940’s Cocktail (That’s Cheaper Than a Plane Ticket)

You Need To Try This is a running archive of all the awesome drinks and delicious dishes we’ve come across over the course of our professional and private lives.

If you’re not going anywhere warm during the hectic run-up to Christmas, a transportive drink like the classic Mai Tai is definitely in order. Invented in California towards the end of the Second World War (1944), the tiki concoction – made of rum, curacao, orgeat syrup and lime juice – was specifically designed to be evocative of the South Pacific. It’s not too complicated a puzzle to make at home (even if you screw it up it will still taste pretty damn good), but as is the case with many delicious things a Mai Tai will almost always taste better when someone else makes it. Go ahead and indulge in the one offered at Notch8 in the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. It just so happens to be exemplary (made with Mount Gay and Bacardi Black rums) and it’s half price during during their Happy Hour service. Apparently this week’s weather is going to be brutal enough to require such a liquid daydream, and chances are you’re going to be in the neighbourhood doing some Christmas shopping anyway…so bottoms up!