On August 30, 2009, the city of Oakland declared that from then on August 30 should be World Mai Tai Day. It was a day in August 1944 Victor Bergeron made the first Mai Tai.

THE MAI TAI
The history of the Mai Tai is a story of two tiki bar giants. Victor Jules Bergeron (aka Trader Vic) and Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt (aka Donn Beach, or Don the Beachcomber). Donn Beach opened his first South Pacific style restaurant in Hollywood in 1933. He was a rum connoisseur and started making exotic rum drinks inspired by his many travels.

Trader Vic had his own restaurant called Hinky Dinks that he opened in 1934 in Oakland, California. After a trip to Cuba to refine his bartender skills and learn more about rum, the Trader remodeled Hinky Dinks into a Polynesian style tiki bar and changed the name to Trader Vic’s.

The Mai Tai was first made in 1944 for Ham and Carrie Guild, a couple of Tahitian friends of Bergeron’s. They liked it so much Carrie Guild exclaimed in Tahitian “Mai Tai-Roa A’e” meaning “Out of this world, the best”. “That was that”, as Mr. Bergeron said.

Trader Vic and Don the Beachcomber fought over the invention of the Mai Tai for many years but when Mr. Beach claimed the drink to be his the Trader had enough. Donn was sued and lost. Trader Vic stated “There has been a lot of conversation over the beginning of the Mai Tai, and I want to get the record straight. I originated the Mai Tai, but many others have claimed credit … Anyone who says I didn’t create the drink is a dirty stinker.” Victor Bergeron might however have got the inspiration for the drink, along with making a tiki bar out of Hinky Dinks, from Donn Beach so without Donn we probably wouldn’t have the Mai Tai.

THE DESIGNER
The glass, called Pitagora after its triangular base, was designed by Marco Zanuso in 1969.