Love Drinking Mai Tais? Fix this Drink
Watch bartender Will Thompson make his Appleton® Rum, Grand Marnier®, lime juice and black tea orgeat cocktail.

Courtesy Will Thompson
Thank you Appleton® for partnering with Half Full on the Bartenders At Home cocktail video series.
What inspired you to create this cocktail? “Everybody loves a Daiquiri, but I think Jamaican rum can hold up to a few more ingredients than the lighter styles you might use for a simple drink, so something more Mai Tai-style made sense to me.”
When would you serve this drink? “This is more of an afternoon or pre-dinner drink than a nightcap to me, but I’m not going to tell anyone how to live their life.”
What music would you pair it with? “The soundtrack for the show Pose.”
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What food would you pair it with? “Snacks! Shrimp cocktail and potato chips, cheese board, whatever. Easy stuff that you won’t have to spend too much time cleaning up.”
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Name the person (dead or alive) you’d like to make this cocktail for. “Philip Seymour Hoffman. He’s been in a bunch of movies I’ve seen recently and it would be pretty good to have him back around.”
By Will Thompson
INGREDIENTS
- 2 parts Appleton® 8-Year-Old Reserve Rum (Order on Drizly)
- .75 part Fresh lime juice
- .5 part Grand Marnier®
- .5 part Black Tea Orgeat*
- Glass: Coffee mug
DIRECTIONS
Add all of the ingredients to a shaker and fill with ice. Shake, and strain into a coffee mug filled with crushed ice.
Add 10 ounces of oat milk (or any kind of milk) and three black tea bags to a sauce pot and simmer on low for six minutes. Strain out the tea bags and add 20 ounces of sugar. Stir while it’s still warm to dissolve all the sugar, and then add 1 drop of almond extract for every two ounces of syrup.
You can find more Bartenders At Home cocktail tutorials here!
Interview has been condensed and edited.
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