Last week, I responded to a reader request to write more about Mai Tais, and this week it’s time to reveal the SECRET recipe I promised to share with you all…but first the story of its creation.
Aloha Maid Passion Orange Juice, Kahului Costco
As many @hulagrrl210 followers already know, I’m a big fan of United Airlines’ very generous baggage policy for Premier Golds, Platinums, and 1Ks. The allowance is an incredible 3x 70lbs. per person! I know what you’re probably thinking, who travels with that much baggage?!?! We do! But it’s not what you think. My husband and I abused made good use of this policy over the years to transport goods all over the world, but most frequently used it to bring home groceries from Kahului Costco. There are a lot of things there that you can find only in the Hawaiian Islands, and I found I started missing them when I was back in California. The usual items were pallets of green tea and Aloha Maid Passion Orange juice. Wrap 2 of them together with some plastic (also found in Costco), slap the required agriculture sticker on there, and check ‘em in with United. I would occasionally have to sign a limit of liability waiver (United didn’t want to have any responsibility), but believe it or not, over about a 3 year period of doing this, we only lost 1 can of tea.
Baggage Claim, Sacramento, CA
So the story behind the recipe goes something like…I really wanted a Mai Tai one night and didn’t exactly have all the necessary ingredients at home with which to make one. Even worse, I was in no condition to drive anywhere. We were forced to get creative, and much like the story of the original Mai Tai’s creation, I made it work with what we had lying around. Thanks to United Airlines, I conveniently had a pantry-full of Aloha Maid Passion Orange “juice”. You might recall from last week’s episode how I boldly asserted that real Mai Tais don’t have juice. In my defense, Aloha Maid Passion Orange drink is really more sugar water than actual juice, so we’re still good (and for those who are health conscious, it’s made with real cane sugar not HFCS). It turned out to be the perfect ingredient for an awesome Mai Tai.
Introducing….
The Aloha Maid Passion Orange Mai Tai
- 1 oz. light rum
- 1 oz. dark rum
- 1/2 oz. lime juice
- 1/2 oz. Disaronno
- 3 oz. Aloha Maid Passion Orange in a can
- acceptable garnishes: pineapple, cherry, magic tiki dude.
So there you have it- lots of rum, sugar, and a little Disaronno to replace the almond flavored orgeat syrup. What was created out of sheer desperation, surprisingly turned out to be pretty good! If anyone out there is brave enough to try my drink, make one, send me a picture and tell me what you think!
What’s the most creative thing you’ve done thanks to your airline’s baggage policy?