Mai Tai

Now, as far as the origin of the Mai Tai, the drink's Wikipedia page notes that "Victor J. Bergeron claimed to have invented the Mai Tai in 1944 at his restaurant, Trader Vic's, in Oakland, California." However, as with so many cocktails, the origin of this bad boy is most definitely disputed. Donn Beach, one of the founding fathers of "Tiki culture" — "a 20th-century American social construct... manifesting itself in the form of exotically decorated bars and restaurants that catered to a longing for travel to tropical regions (typically Polynesia and Oceania as a whole)" — also claims to have invented the Mai Tai. At this point it seems impossible to say who actually first came up with the drink, but what is certain is that it's dang delicious. It should be noted that Beachbum Berry, a respected authority on Tiki culture history, says on his site that "Don The Beachcomber invented a drink he called the Mai Tai Swizzle in 1933, but it seems to have disappeared from his menu sometime before 1937." Beachbum Berry adds that "Strong evidence suggests that Trader Vic developed his own Mai Tai, without any knowledge of Donn’s, in 1944." Which means this issue is all cleared up! Except it isn't, because B.B. also says that there's "Equally strong evidence [suggesting] that Vic was aware of Donn’s [mai tai recipe]." Regardless of who invented the drink, they still call for different ingredients. Mix That Drink notes that "The original Trader Vic’s Mai Tai used no fruit juice but lime, [while] the Don the Beachcomber version used grapefruit juice."