Barlist
Mai Tai Cocktail: Tiki Fantasy, Postwar Escapism, and Trader Vic’s Most Enduring Creation
In 1944, as wartime austerity began to give way to postwar optimism, a cocktail emerged in Oakland that would outlast the décor of the era that produced it. The Mai Tai cocktail was not designed as a spectacle. It was constructed in balance. Beneath the bamboo, carved idols, and Polynesian fantasy that defined mid-century tiki […]
March 3, 2026
