Cranberry Mai Tai

We firmly believe that tiki drinks are suitable for any occasion. You can always garnish your tiki mug with a little Santa Hat or an umbrella made out of a peppermint stick, can’t you? That said, we also love creating seasonal cocktails that will make an impression on our holiday guests. One of the ways that we do this is by adding some holiday flavors into our favorite tiki drinks, turning them into something new that captures the spirit of the holidays.

This Cranberry Mai Tai just might be the perfect holiday party tiki drink. The cocktail starts with a batch of sweet-tart homemade cranberry syrup, which gives the drink a great color, as well as a seasonal flavor. We initially tried using it in place of the simple syrup in a traditional Trader Vic’s mai tai, but found that we needed to add a bit more syrup to really infuse the cranberry flavor we wanted into our drink. Fortunately, the syrup isn’t that sweet and, after playing around with our ratios a bit, we hit on a great blend of rum, lime and cranberry that everyone can enjoy.

The syrup recipe below makes enough for quite a few cocktails, but it is easy to go through it in a night if you’re entertaining. The syrup recipe can be doubled and will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for about 2 weeks.

Cranberry Mai Tai
1 oz dark Jamaican Rum
1 oz white Martinique Rum
3/4 oz lime juice, freshly squeezed
3/4 oz cranberry syrup (recipe below)
1/4 oz Cointreau
1/4 oz orgeat syrup

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass, fill with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a tall old fashioned glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a lime wedge and some fresh, whole cranberries.

Serves 1.

Homemade Cranberry Syrup
1 cup 100% cranberry juice
3/4 cup sugar

Combine ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring regularly, until all sugar is dissolved. Cool to room temperature and refrigerate until ready to use.

Makes 1 1/2 cups.