Garret J. Richards from Sunken Harbor Club NYC advocates putting a spent lime wedge on the bottom of the glass instead of garnishing it on top. You swirl the glass with just the wedge before dirty dumping the cocktail on top, and adding crushed ice. Doing it this way coats the entire glass in lime oils and further amplifies the olfactory experience. You then only garnish with mint on top.
I’ve tried it in a couple different ways, and this hits the right spot for me. It uses the original garnishes, only adds an additional technique and slightly neatens the presentation.
Zucker & Zeste featured the topic Mai Tai recently and @SaibotZtar and myself had the pleasure to write down some of our thoughts. It also tackles some beginners Mai Tais ;).
