Anyone who’s attended a Tiki Sunday at Drink knows that the bar makes a mean Mai Tai. And now that the Barbara Lynch Collective is selling Drink’s cocktail kits at sister spots Sportello and The Butcher Shop, you can be reunited with the tiki favorite.

“We were missing being able to showcase the care we put into every cocktail we make in our restaurants,” says Barbara Lynch Collective beverage director Ashley Guertin. “We make all of our own syrups in house, so we wanted to be able to share that and allow guests to bring it home.”

In the case of Drink’s Mai Tai Cocktail Kit, that means a mix featuring house-made orgeat, a house-made orange cordial, and fresh lime juice preserved by naturally occurring acids. The mix makes six cocktails and lasts five to seven days in the fridge.

Its instructions are simple: two ounces of the mix plus an ounce-and-a-half of rum. But that ounce-and-a-half is open to interpretation.

“I love rum and have many different types, probably too many, at home,” Guertin says. “It’s really fun to create a different blend of rums to suit your personal preference.”

In that spirit, we’ve shared the most basic recipe for the Mai Tai Cocktail Kit below, along with some of Guertin’s favorite rum blends. But there’s one thing each drink has in common: a “mint salad” garnish.

“I love a ton of mint at the top of my Mai Tais,” Guertin says. “I think it adds a lot of aromatic complexity when you’re going in to take a sip and that mint is right in your face.”

Mai Tai
2 ounces Drink’s Mai Tai Cocktail Kit Mix
1½ ounces rum
5-6 mint sprigs, for garnish

Add rum and mixer to a shaker filled with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice and garnish with mint sprigs.

Rum Blend #1
This blend includes a smaller portion of Smith & Cross Traditional Jamaican Rum—a high-octane, 114-proof pot-still rum known to boast a funky, gamey flavor known in the rum world as “hogo.” It’s balanced with the comparatively mellow flavors of Privateer True American Amber Rum or Plantation Barbados 5 Years Rum.

Mai Tai with Rum Blend #1
2 ounces Drink’s Mai Tai Cocktail Kit Mix
1 ounce Privateer True American Amber Rum or Plantation Barbados 5 Years Rum
½ ounce Smith & Cross Traditional Jamaican Rum
5-6 mint sprigs, for garnish
 
Add all ingredients to a shaker filled with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice and garnish with mint sprigs.

Rum Blend #2
The second blend uses Plantation Rum Xaymaca Special Dry, another Jamaican pot-still rum with funky, layered flavors, but at a lower proof (86) than the Smith & Cross. While Guertin says that the Xaymaca can make a fine Mai Tai on its own, it can be tempered with an equal amount of Plantation Barbados 5 Years or the lighter-style Plantation Rum 3 Stars.

Mai Tai with Rum Blend #2
2 ounces Drink’s Mai Tai Cocktail Kit Mix
¾ ounce Plantation Xaymaca Special Dry Rum
¾ ounce Plantation Barbados 5 Years Rum or Plantation Rum 3 Stars
5-6 mint sprigs, for garnish

Add all ingredients to a shaker filled with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice and garnish with mint sprigs.

Rum Blend #3
Add more tropical flavor to your Mai Tai with an equal blend of Plantation Barbados 5 Years and Stiggins’ Fancy Pineapple, which Plantation Rum infuses with Victoria pineapples.

Mai Tai with Rum Blend #3
2 ounces Drink’s Mai Tai Cocktail Kit Mix
¾ ounce Plantation Rum Stiggins’ Fancy Pineapple
¾ ounce Plantation Barbados 5 Years Rum
5-6 mint sprigs, for garnish

Add all ingredients to a shaker filled with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice and garnish with mint sprigs.