The mai-tai is a cornerstone of the various things that make up the Tiki asthetic.  Trader Vic's restaruant and its founder Victor Burgeron lay claim to inventing it--way back in 1944! The name Mai-Tai comes from the Tahitian phrase "Mai Tai Roa E'" which roughly translates into "The Best" or "Out of This World!"  Today, there are countless different versions of the beloved rum drink, including mine.  So for nostalgia sake, here is the original Trader Vic's recipe:

• 2 oz 17-year-old J. Wray Nephew Jamaican rum
• 1/2 oz French Garnier Orgeat
• 1/2 oz Holland DeKuyper Orange Curacao
• 1/4 oz Rock Candy Syrup
• juice from one fresh lime
Hand shake and garnish with half of the lime shell inside the drink and float a sprig of fresh mint at the edge of the glass.

Even Vic himself tinkered with the recipe over the years and goodness knows other restauranteurs reverse engineered, borrowed (cough, cough) the recipe for their own.  

ORIGINAL QUIET VILLAGE MAI TAI 
My version was actually inspired by the very very boozey mai tais served at the Bali-Hai restaurant in San Diego.  I dialed theirs back a bit but I do like mine a little on the drier side, so I nixed the curacao and replaced both it and the rock candy syrup with sweet n' sour.  The result is a very satisfying, lightly drier version that retains the original flavor of the classic.

• 1 oz Appleton Estate Signature Blend rum (can substitute simple white rum)
• 1 oz Caruba Dark Rum (can sub. any dark rum)
• .75 oz fresh lime juice
• 1 oz sweet & sour
• .5 oz orgeat syrup
• splash Demerara 151 proof rum
Fill Quiet Village Mai Tai glass full of crushed ice. Set spent lime shell aside. Pour in all ingredients into glass EXCEPT Demerara rum. Pour glass contents into another glass and back into Mai Tai glass to gently mix ingredients. Throw in spent lime shell. Float splash of Demerara 151 rum on top of drink. Garnish with fresh mint sprig and maraschino cherry speared to pineapple wedge. Enjoy while listening to the Quiet Village Podcast.
A QUICK WORD ABOUT THE RUMS - I have experimented with many rums and, while I am not a product endorser, I can vouch for the fact that the BEST tasting Q.V. Mai Tai will come from using the Caruba Dark  & Appleton amber rums.  I cannot stress enough how good the drink is with THESE rums!

THE QUIET VILLAGE TOP SHELF MAI TAI
as if a great Mai Tai weren't enough, why not go top shelf?

• 1 oz Appleton Estate XV rum (or other quality amber rum)
• 1 oz Caruba Dark rum
• .5 oz sweet & sour
• .5 Cointreau
• .5 oz orgeat syrup
• splash Demerara 151 proof rum
• 1/2 large lime (fresh)

follow same instructions as above.

THE QUIET VILLAGE VODKA MAI TAI
Let's face it, some people just aren't rum drinkers--and that's ok.  I love vodka drinks too.  If you are entertaining and have friends who just aren't into rum, try this recipe.  It comes out surprisingly close to the rum Mai Tai version.
• 2 oz. vodka (can also use Citron flavored vodka)
• 1 oz. Cointreau or Grand Marnier
• 1 oz. Sweet n Sour
• .5 oz Orgeat syrup
• 3/4 oz fresh lime juice (or jucie of 1/2 large lime)
• .5 oz pineapple juice (optional)

Shake with crushed ice and pour into rocks glass. Garnish with fresh mint and pineapple wedge, speared to maraschino cherry.

What is "Tiki Music?
There really is no genre called "Tiki Music," but rather it is a group of genres (Exotica, Hawaiian, Ultra-Lounge and others) that generally fit well into a Tiki bar or tropical environment.

What is Exotica?
Exotica is a style of music popularized in the 1950's and 1960's in America and features atmospheric music designed to set a mood of far away tropical lands such as Hawaii or the Orient. The music stereotypically features sound effects like bird calls and jungle sounds, although relatively few albums in the genre actually featured such sounds.

Martin Denny is widely considered the "Father of Exotica" for having popularized the genre in the 50's and '60s. It was the title of Denny's first album "Exotica" that the genre gets its name.

Denny, along with his percussionist Augie Colon, invented the novelty of bird calls and jungle sounds within the music. The story goes that Denny's group was performing at the Shell Bar in Waikiki, HI which contained a water feature with frogs. When the band would start, the frogs would croak. When the music stopped, so would the frogs. People thought it was part of the music and began to request the songs with the frog sounds. Soon after, Colon-- a master bird caller, began to include bird calls in the songs.

While Denny is considered the "Father of Exotica," then Les Baxter must be credited as the "Grandfather of Exotica." Baxter, a master composer and arranger with Capitol Records in the 40's and on into the 70's, is the actual composer of such Denny classics as "Quiet Village", "Left Arm of Buddha", "Taboo" just to name a few.  Baxter is credited for what is widely considered THE first Exotica release: "Ritual of the Savage" which featured exotic rhythms borrowed from Latin and African music and featured song titles that evoked far away lands.

Although the genre is typically associated with out-of-print LP's from 50 years ago, there are a small handful of modern artists recreating and reinterpreting Exotica today.

Exotica on Wikipedia

The music played on the Quiet Village Podcast and on Quiet Village radio comes from my own personal collection of albums that I have accumulated over years of collecting.  In recent times, many of the albums that were once very hard to find are now available on many streaming and digital stores worldwide.  However, there is still a large amount of music that has not been reissued.  In every episode of the Quiet Village Podcast, I try to make sure I delineate between a track that I play that is or is not currently available digitally.