The Perfect Mai Tai

The final day of London Cocktail Week, and in particular: UK Rumfest, is the perfect opportunity to revisit one of the most well known rum cocktails: the Mai Tai. With some of the original ingredients of Trader Vic's classic no longer available, creating either a perfect and/or authentic Mai Tai is harder than you might think. Fortunately the thought of imbibing vast quantities of this drink, albeit with an array of different ingredient variables, is not seen as the worst pastime in the world. The online Tiki community has put in the hard research required to discover the best Mai Tai ingredients. Purely in the interests of science, of course. The right combination of rums elevates a well made Mai Tai into the cocktail stratosphere. This updated Mai Tai page provides all the mixing details and references to more Mai Tai information that you'll need to create a perfect Mai Tai.

Coconaut

The Coconaut: a moreish Tiki cocktail combining Rum, Lime and Coconut Cream.

Pompanski Martini

After a long break, Mix Shake and Pour is back with the deliciously dry Pompanski Martini. More cocktails on the way very soon...

Mojito Summer

Summer is here. Scorching weather. Barbecues. Long evenings. At last. Ok, well I'm lying a little bit there as its chucking it down outside and proving to be a truly "english" summer. So as I await a call with news of the cancellation of tomorrow's village cricket match that I'm due to play in, I thought I'd post a few drinks designed exclusively for good times in the sun. Yes I can dream. So we have now have a range of fabulous Mojito variations up on the site. All are worth a try, but I have to say the Peach Mojito is really something else. A deep and complex fruit and mint flavour that somehow retains that thirst quenching characteristic of this fabulous Cuban drink.

The Tartini

A new Vodkatini for today is the Tartini. Loads of berry flavours are dried by a slug of Cranberry juice to produce an excellent short drink.

There's also a new feature that allows readers to add comments to menu and recipe pages, using the Facebook API. If you've got a Facebook account, just log in and away you go.

Chalino Special

Continuing the Margarita theme, I'd been meaning to try a recipe I came across in Dave Wondrich's Esquire column and finally got round to it. The Chalino Special combines a decent sized slug of Tequila with a touch of Cassis and lemon and lime to balance things up. The result is a rather subtle fruit edge to compliment, rather than drown, the Tequila. Whoever Chalino is or was, much respect to the man!

The other significant update today is a revision of our cocktail book recommendations. The text and selections have been brought right up to date, and it also looks a bit sharper with some new styling. The latest Difford's Guide is about to hit the shelves, and we'll have live links via Amazon as soon as its out.

Fruity Vodkatinis and Margaritas

Two new cocktail recipes include a rich raspberry and elderflower vodkatini named La Boheme (pictured), and a fruity Margarita created by Dick Bradsell, named The Flirt. The Margarita page is now looking pretty healthy...

The Famous Bartenders page is gradually growing in detail with some extra links added and a new entry for British cocktail genius, Dick Bradsell.

The Tools of the Trade page, recommending the very best in cocktail equipment for the home bar has had a considerable revamp. Its now slap bang up to date and looks a lot sharper.

The visual food sites like Taste Spotting and Food Gawker have been getting our interest lately. If you've not seen it already, please check out our homage to them, the Cocktail Wall. There's lots of potential to do stuff with this basic concept so please let us know if you like it.

Today's update also includes a host of the usual touch ups, minor corrections and extra links.