Mai-Kai cocktail review: Bring a friend and sink your teeth into the classic Sidewinder’s Fang

Updated August 2024
See below: Our Sidewinder’s Fang review | Ancestor recipe | Tribute recipe NEW
Related: Mai-Kai cocktail guide
• Preview and recipes: Book reveals long-lost secrets and stories of P/Fassionola NEW

It may sound and look intimidating, but the whopping Sidewinder’s Fang is the perfect cocktail for a couple to share while enjoying a romantic evening at Fort Lauderdale’s landmark Mai-Kai Polynesian restaurant. Typically served in a giant snifter, it’s a fun and accessible cocktail that should appeal to newcomers and tropical drink aficionados alike. Featuring six ounces of rum, it’s suitable for an even larger party.

The distinctive snifter is sometimes in short supply, so you may receive this giant cocktail in two smaller versions (see photo). But it’s been a long time since we’ve noticed a shortage of glasses, so this unique cocktail experience will live on exactly as it has for more than 60 years. The Mai-Kai is one of the few restaurants in the world to use this rare 64-ounce glass.

The cocktail itself is a classic communal Tiki drink, dominated by fruit juices and similar to the Mystery Drink, just not quite as complex. Many Polynesian restaurants served a Sidewinder’s Fang when exotic drinks flourished in the mid-century. The tribute recipe below is thought to be the original.

It’s also a popular drink at modern Tiki bars and within the enthusiast community. A new book, Fassionola: The Torrid Story of Cocktails’ Most Mysterious Ingredient, features five Sidewinder’s Fang recipes, including the ancestor and tributes below. The book explores the fascinating history of the signature syrup that’s featured in this and many other classic cocktails. Click here to see our in-depth story on the book, including more recipes.

The official menu description

SIDEWINDER’S FANG

You’ll need help with this festive concoction served in a colossal snifter (serves two).

Okole Maluna Society review and rating

Size: Extra large

Potency: Strong

Flavor profile: Lime and orange juice, tart passion fruit, just a hint of rum.

Review: Deceptively mild tasting for a strong drink, it’s fruity and tart in the same vein as the Mystery Drink.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (see how it ranks)

Ancestry: Added to The Mai-Kai menu after a 1959 update, the Sidewinder’s Fang was a common sight at many mid-century Polynesian restaurants and bars. It’s believed to have originated at the Lanai in San Mateo, Calif.

Bilge: The Sidewinder’s Fang and Mystery Drink are the only two signature cocktails not included in the daily 2-for-1 happy hour.

Agree or disagree? Share your reviews and comments below!

ANCESTOR RECIPE
Sidewinder’s Fang
(From Beachbum Berry’s Grog Log and Remixed)

• 1 1/2 ounces fresh lime juice
• 1 1/2 ounces orange juice
• 1 1/2 ounces passion fruit syrup
• 1 ounce dark Jamaican rum
• 1 ounce Demerara rum
• 3 ounces club soda

Shake everything – except club soda – with ice cubes. Pour unstrained into a large snifter. Stir in soda. Add more ice to fill. Garnish with the length of spiral-cut orange peel.

From the Lanai in San Mateo, Calif., circa 1960s. The Fassionola book cites 1950 as the cocktail’s origin date. It also refers to the cocktail as the “Side Winder’s Fang,” likely the original spelling.

UPDATE: The new book includes the club soda before blending with crushed ice for 10 seconds, which we prefer and is the same method as The Mai-Kai.

This is the single serving, of course. You’ll want to triple this recipe to achieve the colossal status of something like The Mai-Kai’s version. The club soda adds a fizzy element not associated with most tropical cocktails. But it nicely offsets the sweet and sour ingredients and adds volume to the large variation.

Juices and syrup: Fresh juices and a homemade or high-quality syrup will make or break this large fruit-forward cocktail. We agree with Berry that limes must be fresh-squeezed, but that bottled OJ is fine if you’re using a 100 percent natural brand. The Fassionola book confirms the original Passionola as a key ingredient in this cocktail, so seek out this newly revived product if you’re looking to make a historically accurate version. If not, there are some quality passion fruit syrups on the market (Real, BG Reynolds, Small Hand Foods, et al.). We prefer to make our own. If your local grocer stocks frozen passion fruit pulp, simply thaw slightly and combine with a rich sugar syrup base (2 parts pure cane sugar with 1 part purified water). Use roughly the same proportion of thawed pulp to water (one cup of each, for example). Simmer on the stove, then let cool. It should stay fresh in the fridge for several weeks. Enough time for several rounds of Sidewinder’s Fangs.
• Preview and recipes: Book reveals long-lost secrets and stories of P/Fassionola NEW

Rums: There are so many choices among Jamaican and Demerara rums, your choice may depend on how upscale you want to go with your cocktail. In general, mid-range rums are fine. These include dark Jamaican rums such as Coruba, Navy Bay, Myers’s, and Blackwell. If you want to add a bit more funk, try Hamilton, Doctor Bird or Smith & Cross. There are many Demerara options from Guyana, such as the lightly or moderately aged Lemon Hart, Hamilton, El Dorado, and Pusser’s bottlings. If you want to get fancy, these brands also make longer aged products.

Tribute to The Mai-Kai’s Sidewinder’s Fang
By The Atomic Grog with Gregorio Pantoja and Martin S. Lindsay

• 3 ounces fresh lime juice
• 3 ounces orange juice
• 2 ounces Passionola Gold (or passion fruit syrup)
• 1 ounce fassionola (red)
• 4 ounces light Puerto Rican rum
• 2 ounces Demerara rum
• 6 ounces club soda

Pulse blend with 3-4 cups of crushed ice. Pour unstrained into a large snifter or Tiki mug. Add more ice to fill. Serve with long straws.

Sweet, tart and very easy to drink. The lime and passion fruit are up-front flavors, but beware that this cocktail is deceptively strong. The soda gives it a distinctive fizziness and enhances the drinkability.

Mixing tips

It’s easy to make a single-serving version (shown in the photo above) by simply cutting everything in half. When the giant 64-ounce snifter glasses are unavailable, or upon request, The Mai-Kai may serve the Sidewinder’s Fang in two portions in the snifters that are used for the Mutiny and Black Magic.

Remember to add the soda before blending. This is standard practice for tropical drinks and helps achieve maximum dilution to fill the snifter. If you’re doubting the strength of this monster, here are some figures. Based on the ingredients before dilution, the rums account for 28 percent of the Sidewinder’s Fang, compared to 30 percent of the potent Black Magic. There’s virtually no difference in the strength.

Historical notes

Our research shows that this cocktail was not on the 1959 menu. But it was added sometime after that and before the next menu we’ve seen, circa 1968. This makes sense on two fronts. The original from the Lanai would have gained mass appeal by the ’60s. More importantly, The Mai-Kai needed more large format drinks and fewer of the small cocktails it featured on its 1956-57 menu.

The reason for this is the debut in the early 1960s of the Polynesian Islander Revue, the oldest continually-running authentic South Seas stage show in the United States (including Hawaii). The large cocktails – such as the signature Barrel O’ Rum – are ideally suited to keep guests satisfied for the length of a 30- or 40-minute show and also keep the wait staff from dealing with orders and interrupting the immersive experience of fire-knife dancers and other performers.

For this, founding owners Bob and Jack Thornton turned to their head bartender and master mixologoist, Mariano Licudine. Like many other immigrants from the Philippines, Licudine had started his career at Don the Beachcomber in Los Angeles, circa 1939. He then spent 15 years at the Chicago location, where the Thorntons grew up and became enamored with the Polynesian restaurant concept.

Licudine’s bag of tricks included many of the original Beachcomber cocktails, which he tweaked slightly under the direction of the Thorntons to fit The Mai-Kai aesthetic. For the Sidewinder’s Fang, they simply went with the Lanai version, which likely had become ubiquitous at that point. The changes were few, aside from the drink’s sheer size and slightly lighter rum profile.

The rum flavor is subtle, with just a whisper of Demerara. But the “P/Fassionola” flavor is strong and unlike any other drink. That’s why we recommend using both the gold (aka passion fruit) and red fassionola syrups. This combo gives it a distinctive tart sweetness (or sweet tartness).

Ingredient tips

Juices: The Mai-Kai uses a distinctively tart Key lime blend that is impossible to duplicate exactly. Our hack is to simply combine equal parts of fresh-squeezed Persian lime juice with bottled key lime juice (the kind used to make pies). As noted above, the orange juice should to be a 100 percent natural variety, but to come closest to The Mai-Kai flavor profile you’ll need a Florida brand. OJ from the Sunshine State tends to be sweeter than California juice. The Mai-Kai uses the local Kennesaw brand, available at Whole Foods and other retailers in the state. It’s very rich and pulpy with no additives, which also means it has a short shelf life and probably isn’t shipped that far. There are other good options we recommend, including Natalie’s and Indian River Select.

Syrups: As noted above, we recommend a combination of tart passion fruit syrup with rich and fruity red fassionola. Anecdotally, I’ve heard people at The Mai-Kai over the years refer to both “Passionola” and “fassionola,” and I’ve spent more than a decade trying to figure out which cocktails feature which syrup. The review of the Cobra Kiss contains a deep dive into the history and revival of fassionola. What remains a mystery is exactly which syrup, and where it was sourced, was used at what time. Manager Kern Mattei has said that The Mai-Kai used the original Passionola brand before he started working there in 1984 (five years after Licudine retired), but when it became difficult to obtain they transitioned to passion fruit syrup. In Fassionola: The Torrid Story of Cocktails’ Most Mysterious Ingredient, he tells the story of finding an old bottle of red Fassionola in the back of a refrigerator, abandoned years earlier. It still tasted fine, he said, so they used it to create their own house-made fassionola. The book also states: “Mariano’s ‘black book’ held by Kern Jr. confirms Passionola was an original ingredient in their Sidewinder’s Fang. A similar version is still served today with the Mai-Kai’s house-made syrups.” Which begs the question: Which syrup(s) does the cocktail feature today? I wasn’t happy with passion fruit syrup or fassionola on their own, so I suggested combining them for the recipe in the book. The result is very close to the mark. Check the ancestor recipe above for info on Passionola and passion fruit syrup. Essentially, the historic brand or house-made is best. As for red fassionola, the Cobra Kiss tribute includes many options. For Mai-Kai cocktails, we prefer the Jonathan English and BG Reynolds brands.
• Preview and recipes: Book reveals long-lost secrets and stories of P/Fassionola NEW

Rums: There’s quite a bit of booze in this cocktail but it shouldn’t be too boozy. The Mai-Kai uses Hamilton 86, a quality Demerara rum from Guyana bottled at 43 percent ABV. It does the trick nicely, but there are plenty of other options, outlined in the ancestor recipe above. The light Puerto Rican rum component, essentially a lightly aged and filtered column-still rum from any traditional Spanish-style distillery or brand, is used simply to beef up the ABV. Any decent 80-proof “white” rum from Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, etc., will suffice.

Okole maluna!

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