Taki Tiki Room

10/16/2025

Why is all that money mounted on the ceiling? www.shortsnorter.org

12/07/2022

Oh no!😭

Petition launched to save legendary hotel bar/restaurant.

08/30/2022

This original letter hangs here at the Taki Tiki Room!

Mai Tai Myth: Trader Vic Kept the Recipe a Secret

Leading up to Mai Tai Day (August 30), we are sharing five Mai Tai myths.

While there was a great deal of secrecy around cocktail recipes at Don the Beachcomber locations, there was a different practice with Trader Vic's. While the original 1944 Mai Tai recipe wasn't *published* until the 1972 Bartenders Guide Revised, it also wasn't a trade secret known only to Trader Vic. He had already published many of his Trader Vic's recipes in the 1947 Bartender's Guide.

A customer wrote to Bergeron in 1956 requesting the recipe for the Royal Hawaiian Mai Tai and Trader Vic himself signed the letter sent back to the customer. We know because letter went up for auction in 2010. This remains the earliest documented Hawaiian Mai Tai recipe and is similar to the original 1944 Mai Tai.

This recipe and others like it were published in newspaper articles and books, but Trader Vic's didn't sue or publicly complain about the recipes being shared. It was only when the Sun-Vac corp tried to copyright the Mai Tai for their commercial Mai Tai mix that lawyers got involved. Vic won the out of court settlement.

Want to learn more? Check our essay "The (De)Evolution of the Hawaiian Mai Tai" on our website at UltimateMaiTai.com, or view the article in Issue 15 of Exotica Moderne magazine. Or join us at Trader Vic's Mai Tai Day event on August 28 for a special seminar on the Hawaiian Mai Tai.

08/20/2022

THIS…is why it is important to keep ALL White House correspondence and never flush anything!!!🗿

05/02/2022

And just where is one of the most well known tikis now? We have the answer!

Season 4 of the '70s television series The Brady Bunch kicked off with a family vacation. The Bradys traveled to Hawaii for a few of their most famous episod...

04/24/2022

I remember back in 2012 thinking that the sold prices at the Trader Vic’s Chicago auction at Hindman Auctions were unbelievably high compared to the pre-auction estimates…this weekend, the Peekaboo Gallery auction of Oceanic Arts items was out of this world! How wonderful! 🗿🍍🏝🌺🍹

04/21/2022

Just may add to our collection by bidding on items in this weekend‘s Oceanic Arts auction by Peekaboo Gallery!

06/16/2021

Sauna time! Hot 🥵

06/07/2021

The price of Tiki continues to soar!😳🥴🤑
(Ebay sale ended 6/6/21, 10:15pm)