I've always thought Mai Tais were kind of campy, something fun to have with roast pork shoulder and pineapple. Now I know better. Recently my friend Joe Raffa, a Hawaiian native, mixed the world's greatest Mai Tai from his extensive rum collection. He calls it the $100 Mai Tai because it would cost $100 to buy bottles of all the necessary ingredients. But the drink itself costs much less. And with last week's news about the growing GDP, it seemed ok to post. Especially because it's just so good: caramelly yet tart, smooth yet bright, perfectly balanced — and supersmart (case in point: instead of Cointreau, Joe uses Rhum Clement Creole Shrubb, an orange liqueur made from rhum agricole instead of neutral spirits. "It keeps the rum with the rum," Joe says. And in place of ordinary simple syrup, he uses Depaz cane syrup, a Caribbean sweetener gives the Mai Tai a richer maple note.) The best part, Joe is José Andrés' chef de cuisine at Oyamel in DC, and has been dropping hints that his boss should open a Hawaiian restaurant in DC serving roast pork and really good Mai Tais. All I can say is, José, please, listen up. Recipe after the jump.

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When angry colonists threw tea into Boston Harbor in 1773, they had no idea that their rebellion would eventually lead to the American Revolutionary War in 1775, or that it would inspire the creation of another kind of beverage in 2009: Absolut Vodka Boston, a limited-edition vodka infused with black tea and elderflower.

Recently, mixologist Jamie Gordon hosted an Absolut Vodka Boston Tea Party at Food & Wine's New York City office. He gave the editorial staff a taste of some fantastic cocktails he created with the spirit, such as the juicy and aromatic Absolut Boston Blackberry.

ABSOLUT BOSTON BLACKBERRY
Makes 1 Drink

4 large blackberries
1 ounce agave nectar
4 ounces Absolut Boston
1 1/2 ounces fresh lemon juice
4 dashes rhubarb bitters
Ice

In a cocktail shaker, muddle 2 of the blackberries with the agave nectar. Add the Absolut Boston, lemon juice, bitters and ice. Shake well and double strain into a chilled large martini glass. Garnish with the remaining 2 blackberries.

The third season of the AMC series Mad Men, which revolves around a cast of hard-drinking ad execs in the 1960s, debuts Sunday night. What to expect, according to the New York Times: more historically accurate booze. For a Mad Men–themed cocktail party, we offer the following drinks:

Vanilla Old-Fashioned A muddled vanilla bean adds a twist to creative director Don Draper's drink of choice.

Limoncello Collins This updated take on one of tortured housewife Betty Draper's favorite cocktails calls for limoncello, an intensely flavored Italian liqueur made from lemon peels.

Mai Tai Department store head Rachel Menken drinks the classic rum cocktail when out with Don. This version borrows from the recipe by Ernest Beaumont-Gantt (a.k.a. "Donn Beach," the father of tiki culture), and calls for dashes of Pernod and Angostura bitters for complexity.

 

F&W reported on the trend of punch replacing bottle service at bars and lounges months ago, and now the New York Times' Style section has caught on with Sunday's piece, "Drink, Dance, but Don't Say 'Club.' " For those of you playing at home, we offer 8 punch recipes, including the 1732 Philadelphia Fish House Punch, plus $12-and-under wines that would be  delicious in a bowl of punch, or on their own.

Barring wildly eventful news, I'll be on the Early Show tomorrow (Saturday the 23rd) at around 7:50 AM, mixing up some great summer cocktails—particularly pitcher drinks—for people's Memorial Day weekend parties. Tangerine Collinses, Aphrodisiac Margaritas...all from our new book, Cocktails '09. It's that lawn-party time of year... —R.I.

I stopped in the other night at the Macao Trading Co., which occupies a desolate block of the Tribeca landscape (or at least it seems desolate at 11 PM when there's sleet blowing in your face). It's a neat trick, then, to walk in and abruptly find oneself transported back to some fanciful version of colonial days in Macao; Somerset Maugham may have spent more time at the long bar at Raffles in Singapore, but I still wouldn't have been surprised to find him lurking in a linen suit somewhere in a back booth.

The restaurant brings together the disparate talents of David Waltuck, Chanterelle's longtime chef-owner, and Dushan Zaric & Jason Kosmas of the West Village cocktailian watering hole Employees Only. Waltuck handles the food end, which splits somewhat oddly between Portuguese-influenced and Chinese-influenced dishes (a nod to Macao's colonial history, but—like that history—a somewhat conflicted relationship). For my part, the winning dishes were mostly on the Chinese side of the menu, like an appealingly earthy-briny bowl of Manila clams with black beans and chilies, and a whole sea bass with a ginger-scallion sauce that was fun to pick at and expertly cooked.

But the real reason to head here is the cocktails. In the interests of scientific inquiry, I felt it incumbent on me to try all nine or ten of the house cocktails. They were uniformly excellent both in concept and execution, the sort of cocktail experience that's becoming oddly easy to come across in NYC these days (think Clover Club, Tailor, Pegu Club, PDT, and six or seven other places) and that tends to make one think we're living in a kind of cocktail golden age—an excellent thing, since every other aspect of our age seems rapidly to be turning into some base metal, say lead, or brass.

Anyway, here are two of my faves, recipes courtesy of Mssrs Zaric & Kosmas:

Esmeralda
3 cubes of fresh honeydew melon
1 heaping demitasse spoon of cubed ginger
2 demitasse spoons of sugar
3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
1/4 oz. Luxardo Maraschino liqueur
1 1/4 oz. Esmeralda Cachaça
 
Directions: Muddle the melon, ginger and sugar in the bottom of the mixing glass. Add the rest of the ingredients and ice. Shake and pour unstrained back into a rocks glass. Garnish with a honeydew cut as a "sharks fin."
 
Kaffir Jimlet
3 oz. Kaffir leaf infused Plymouth gin
1 oz. fresh lime Juice
1/2 oz. agave nectar
Green Chartreuse
Kaffir leaf
 
Directions: Wash the inside of a cocktail glass with Green Chartreuse. Pour Gin, lime juice and agave nectar into a mixing glass. Add ice and shake vigorously for 7-8 seconds. Strain into the prepared cocktail glass. Garnish with a Kaffir leaf.

I'll add as a final note: go for the Esmeralda, if you can find it; it's a great aged cachaça, and has more depth than run-of-the-mill white cachaças (for more on artisan cachaças, see my F&W article here). And if you don't feel like infusing your own gin with kaffir leaves, Hangar One makes a kaffir-lime vodka that would probably work as a good substitute.

I'll be on the Today show tomorrow (that'd be Tuesday, the 6th), talking about and making some warming cocktails with the fourth-hour hosts, Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotbe. Hot Buttered Rum, Apple Brandy Hot Toddies, Hot Spiced Wine...and a couple of non-alcoholic options, too. Should be fun. If you're at all interested in the subject, tune in or check out our slideshow here.

I'm just back from a week gallivanting (occasionally by helicopter) through the vineyards of Napa and Sonoma, so while I get my notes together, here are a couple of mighty tasty cachaça cocktails created by my colleague Nick Fauchald. Both are ideal for that moment when the usual caiparinha just seems too darn familiar, or when you're feeling wildly inspired after reading my May story on Brazil and cachaça...

Obrigada
Makes 1 drink
8 red, seedless grapes
One-quarter lime
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
Ice
2 ounces cachaça
Small bunch of grapes, for garnish
In a cocktail shaker, muddle the grapes and lime with the sugar. Fill the shaker with ice and add the cachaca. Shake vigorously for 20 seconds, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a small bunch of grapes.

Agua de Marzo
Makes 1 drink
Ice
2 ounces cachaça
3/4 ounce St-Germain elderflower liqueur
1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
1/2 ounce fresh grapefruit juice
Grapefruit twist, for garnish
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add the cachaça, St-Germain, lime juice and grapefruit juice. Shake vigorously for 20 seconds, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a grapefruit twist.

 

This is just a head's-up on a couple of Washington wines that arrived too late for the March column, but that certainly deserve mentioning. And buying, for that matter. And then serving, maybe with Bruce Aidells's Green Olive and Lemon Crusted Leg of Lamb (I suggested a Napa Cabernet blend with this recipe originally, but I think either of these Syrahs would be super with it, too). 

2006 Dusted Valley Vintners Walla Walla Valley Syrah ($28) Lots of Northern Rhône Syrah characteristics here, with peppercorns and game on the nose and savory, peppery berry fruit lifted by truly refreshing acidity. It's got attitude—sort of like a short, wiry guy who gets into fights with everyone but you, because you happen to be his friend. I actually preferred this wine to Dusted Valley's more expensive and more powerful Reserve bottling. 

2003 Forgeron Cellars Columbia Valley Syrah ($30) This is bigger and darker than the Dusted Valley, but not so big and dark that it becomes troll-like, if a wine can be considered troll-like. In other words, it's balanced—a testimony to winemaker Marie-Eve Gilla's skill. Dense coffee-mocha aromas, very enticing; luscious dark fruit with a roast-meat edge to it. "A bear-hunting wine," to borrow a phrase from Cab Franc maestro John Skupny—about whom, more tomorrow.