Lost Cocktails of The Mai-Kai: The classic Demerara Float rises again … and again

Updated June 2024
See below: Demerara Float review | Ancestor recipe
Official recipe | Tribute recipe
Related: The delicious Demerara Cocktail just can’t stay retired
Mai-Kai cocktail guide
More “lost cocktails” | Tropical drink family tree
Demerara rum – The Mai-Kai’s secret weapon
NEW: Demerara Float on Make and Drink (YouTube)

Most fans of the spectacular tropical drinks at The Mai-Kai in Fort Lauderdale are content with the current menu’s 47 cocktails, a majority of them classic concoctions that have withstood the test of time for more than 65 years. But The Atomic Grog can’t get enough of The Mai-Kai, so we like to crank up our flux capacitor and go back in time to dig up a few “lost cocktails” that disappeared from the menu over the years.

Consider this the advanced level of the Okole Maluna Society, our cocktail guide that includes reviews and recipes of every current drink and a few long-lost classics.

When the Demerara Cocktail came out of retirement in August 2012, it gave us the inspiration to dig deeper into the history and explore some of the other long-gone drinks. Here’s the cool part: They’re not really long gone. The old recipes are still kept in The Mai-Kai back offices, safely under lock and key.

So after the return of the Demerara Cocktail, the next logical step was to revisit its sister drink, the Demerara Float. It took more than six months, but our wish was granted unexpectedly in early in 2013, when the photo above popped up on the Facebook news feed of The Hukilau organizer Christie “Tiki Kiliki” White. It looked like a Shark Bite with its Appleton rum floater. But this was no Shark Bite. The rum was noticeably darker. Could it be?

Indeed it was, and we rushed down to The Molokai bar the next evening to taste this lost classic, which likely was removed from the menu during the 1980s or early 1990s, when Demerara rum became hard to find. The rum’s return in May 2012 not only re-energized some of The Mai-Kai’s best drinks, it made the return of the Demerara Float possible.

The Demerara Float has the same lineage as many others that have endured on The Mai-Kai’s menu for the past half-century. The first ancestor recipe below, of course, is the handiwork of Tiki cocktail pioneer Donn Beach (aka Don the Beachcomber), who set up shop in Hollywood, Calif., at the tail end of Prohibition and went on to influence the next half-century of tropical mixology. (Click here for the full history and ancestry of all The Mai-Kai’s cocktails.) Beach was so far ahead of his time that he’s just now being fully appreciated by a new generation of craft cocktail enthusiasts.

The Mai-Kai’s head mixologist from 1956 until 1979 was a Don the Beachcomber disciple, Mariano Licudine, who created his vast menu by retooling and renaming many of Beach’s best drinks, and also adding a few of his own. A recently discovered Licudine recipe is featured below, along with my own “tribute” recipe that approximates the recent revived version.

Since its grand 2013 return, the Demerara Float has made repeated appearances, including a “lost Cocktails party” at The Hukilau in June 2013 (see photo), the September 2016 book release party for Tim “Swanky” Glazner’s Mai-Kai: History and Mystery of the Iconic Tiki Restaurant (see the special menu) and the 60th anniversary party in December 2016 (see menu). When The Mai-Kai kicked off its “Flashback Friday” promotion, it was the second drink featured in May 2017.

It’s also possible to order the drink on any ordinary visit to the restaurant. If the bar staff is not in the weeds, they would likely be happy to reach back into the archives. We eagerly await the next opportunity to taste this classic.

DEMERARA FLOAT

Okole Maluna Society review and rating

Size: Small

Potency: Medium

Flavor profile: Funky and flavorful rums, lime, a hint of passion fruit.

Review: Served in the same size glass but a bit more rummy than the Demerara Cocktail, thanks to a richer Jamaican rum base and a float of Demerara. It’s dry yet sweet with enough tart fruit flavors to keep everything in perfect balance.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars (see how it ranks). If it were on today’s menu, it would be near the top of our rankings, easily in the Top 5.

Ancestry: A direct descendant of Don the Beachcomber’s Demerara Dry Float, it was on the original 1956-57 Mai-Kai cocktail menu but likely removed when Demerara rum became difficult to stock and was removed from The Mai-Kai’s menu in the early ’90s.

Bilge: You can find an authentic version of the Don the Beachcomber original at the award-winning Smuggler’s Cove in San Francisco, where it’s touted on the menu as “Dry and tart. A vibrant mix of exotic passion fruit, lemon, lime, and Demerara rum. Served with a side of danger.” The recipe is also featured in the 2016 book, Smuggler’s Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum and the Cult of Tiki by owners Martin and Rebecca Cate (see postscript).

Agree or disagree with this review? Share your comments below!

ANCESTOR RECIPE

Demerara Dry Float
(From Beachbum Berry’s Intoxica!)

• 2 1/2 ounces fresh lime juice
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 1/2 ounces passion fruit syrup
• 1/4 ounce sugar syrup
• 1 ounce Demerara rum
• 1/4 ounce 151 Demerara rum
• 1/4 ounce maraschino liqueur

Shake everything – except 151 rum – with ice cubes. Strain into a double old-fashioned glass filled with crushed ice. Carefully float 151. Do not stir.

By Don the Beachcomber, circa 1941.

Tasting and mixing notes

Very similar to Donn Beach’s more stripped-down Demerara Cocktail (and containing many of the same ingredients), this drink is sour and dry – as advertised. But in the Don the Beachcomber tradition, there’s also balance and complexity, despite the abundance of lime juice. It’s also sweet and rummy, thanks to the passion fruit syrup and distinctive Demerara rum. In addition, the juices and maraschino liqueur add a nice tart counterpoint to the rums and sweet syrups.

Lemon Hart rum was likely Don the Beachcomber’s go-to 151 Demerara rum, and the recent return of the Lemon Hart 151 to the U.S. market once again makes this vintage version possible. There are many standard-proof Demerara rum options, including those by El Dorado (try the 8-year-old and 12-year-old blends) as well as Hamilton 86 from Guyana.

Fresh-squeezed juices are essential, along with a quality passion fruit syrup. You can find recipes to make your own online and in Beachbum Berry’s books, or order from some of the many small-batch syrup purveyors (most notably Aunty Lilikoi, B.G. Reynolds and Small Hand Foods). Among the more commercial brands, we like Real syrups the best.

OFFICIAL RECIPE (circa 1970s)

Demerara Float
(From Mr. Lemon Hart’s Tropical Treats, 1973)

• 1/2 ounce lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 ounce gold Puerto Rican rum
• 1 ounce Lemon Hart Demerara rum
• 3/4 ounce Lemon Hart 151 Demerara rum

Mix ingredients (except 151 rum) with cracked ice and strain into a cocktail or sour glass. Float 151 rum.

This recently discovered recipe from a vintage Lemon Hart Rum cocktail book says it was “created at the Mai-Kai Polynesian Restaurant, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.” [See recipe] We don’t doubt it, since Mr. Lemon Hart’s Tropical Treats was edited by Leonce Picot, an assistant manager at The Mai-Kai from 1957 until 1967. The same book also includes a Demerara Cocktail recipe that was published in Beachbum Berry’s Sippin’ Safari.

And, like that sister recipe, the Lemon Hart version appears to be scaled down to half-size, though it’s possible it may have appeared as a small sipper at some point on The Mai-Kai menu. We prepared it in this fashion above, but feel free to double the proportions for a more hefty grog. The Mai-Kai’s vintage menu artwork appears to show a larger version. This recipe also doesn’t list the amount of 151 rum to be floated, but 3/4 ounce seems to work best.

Picot was a key member of The Mai-Kai’s early management team, credited with helping conceive and launch the Mystery Drink, according to Mai-Kai: History and Mystery of the Iconic Tiki Restaurant. In 2011, author Tim “Swanky” Glazner interviewed Picot about his role in the creation of the iconic drink. Sadly, Picot passed away in 2018.

While working at The Mai-Kai, Picot edited a series of books spotlighting restaurants and recipes from around the world. The books – including Gourmet International’s Recommended Restaurants of Puerto Rico (1961) and Great Restaurants of the United States and Their Recipes (1966) – were financed by The Mai-Kai’s owners, Bob and Jack Thornton, Glazner said. The books were illustrated by Al Kocab, known for his distinctive artwork for The Mai-Kai (see image).
* See all of Picot’s books on Amazon

Picot was also the Southeast manager of Rums of Puerto Rico, Glazner said. He left The Mai-Kai in 1967 to open the Downunder, which also had recipes in the Lemon Hart book. Picot was “drink editor” of Mr. Lemon Hart’s Tropical Treats, a paperback that includes more than 125 food and rum cocktail recipes, selling for a mere 95 cents in 1973. Good luck finding it at that price today. Used copies fetch big bucks on Amazon. Note that the cover art was the work of noted British artist Ronald Searle, who illustrated Lemon Hart ad campaigns in the 1950s (see story and more artwork).

Tasting and mixing notes

This version of the Demerara Float is a very potent and dry strong sipper that serves as a great showcase for Demerara rums, Lemon Hart or otherwise. Break it down and it’s just a souped-up Daiquiri. But one of the best Daiquiris you’ll ever taste.

In the tradition of the classic Daiquiri, I used raw organic sugar instead of a simple syrup, diluting it in the fresh-squeezed lime juice before mixing. I suspect that Lucidine and The Mai-Kai made this drink differently in the bar, providing a simplified version for the Lemon Hart company’s book. But it’s actually not far off what we can taste today (see tribute recipes below).

Also, in The Mai-Kai tradition, we mixed this up in a small pulse-blender instead of shaking like you would a typical Daiquiri. The Mai-Kai uses no shakers whatsoever, strictly following Don the Beachcomber’s creed of pulse-blending. It works well here, the cracked or crushed ice diluting the strong flavors when poured through a strainer.

The rums are the key to this cocktail, so try to stick with Lemon Hart 151 (or Hamilton 151, which is very similar) as the floater. Click here for the full story of the history Lemon Hart and Hamilton rums at The Mai-Kai. See our standard Demerara rum recommendations above. If you live in the United Kingdom, you have even more options for Demerara rums than the U.S. market (Wood’s and OVD, among others). Your choices of gold Puerto Rican rums are many, most notably the moderately aged offerings from Bacardi, Don Q, and Ron del Barrilito. Similar Spanish-style gold rums can be found in the Virgin Islands (Cruzan), Nicaragua (Flor de Cana), and the Dominican Republic (Ron Barcelo). The great rums from Cuba are also widely available outside the U.S. (and hopefully here soon).

Tribute to The Mai-Kai’s Demerara Float, v.3
By The Atomic Grog, May 2017 (updated April 2021)

• 3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
• 3/4 ounce rich passion fruit syrup
• 1 1/2 ounces lightly aged, blended Jamaican rum
• 1-2 dashes Angostura bitters (optional)
• 1 ounce Demerara rum (for float)

Pulse blend everything – except Demerara rum – with 1/2 cup of crushed ice in a spindle mixer for 6-8 seconds. Pour into a chilled cocktail or specialty glass. Float Demerara rum. For a truly authentic experience, strain into a glass with a pre-made ice shell (see details below).

Dry yet sweet, with a potent rum combination of rich Jamaican and Demerara rums. There’s still enough fruit and tart flavors to keep everything in perfect balance. Very similar to the Demerara Cocktail, the only differences are a little less sweetness and more flavorful rums (along with the optional bitters). Second-generation Mai-Kai general manager Kern Mattei told us that the Demerara Float is very similar to the Demerara Cocktail with a few ingredients “switched up” just a bit.

The Demerara Float has become our favorite of all the lost cocktails. All the components meld perfectly, with the result a very smooth and not-too-strong medium drink, similar to the Shark Bite. Not coincidentally, both are served in the same glass with the same ice feature and a floater on the side.

Until recently, we were convinced that the Demerara Float featured a floater of 151 Demerara rum, just as it did in the 1970s-era recipe published in the Lemon Hart book and shown above. In our initial tastings when this drink came in of the vault for special events, the only major difference we noted was passion fruit syrup added to the mix, so we posted version 1 of this tribute (see recipe below). In fact, 151 rum may have been mistakenly served this way at one or more of the special events, manager Kern Mattei says, but the correct recipe uses a lower proof rum. We’ve updated our tribute recipe to account for the different rum in the float, but you can still find our earlier version below.

More recently (April 2021 update), we’ve added a couple of optional dashes of Angostura bitters to the mix, providing some balance from the tartness and sweetness. This concentrated mix of herbs and spices (clocking in at 45 percent alcohol) also adds some of the same flavor notes of 151 Demerara rum, which explains some of our confusion. If you prefer a sweeter cocktail, just forego the bitters.

Notes and tips for home mixologists

• The floater may not be 151, but the Demerara rum called for in the current recipe is no slouch. Hamilton 86, which at 86 proof is bolder and more potent than many other Demerara rums on the market, is The Mai-Kai’s only option in all drinks that call for a non-151 Demerara rum. If you can’t find Hamilton 86 in your area, seek out another dark and flavorful Demerara rum such as the El Dorado products from Demerara Distillers. The 8-, 12- and 15-year-old rums from El Dorado are all fine choices. Pusser’s British Navy Rum (the 84-proof “blue label”) is another option since it’s not 100% Demerara rum from Guyana. Outside of the United States, there may be even more options (see notes above), but all Demerara rums come from that same distillery, the only one left in Guyana. This includes Lemon Hart, which is back on the U.S. market with a new 80-proof rum called Original 1804. The Mai-Kai had been using both 151 and 80-proof Lemon Hart until early 2015, when they were temporarily removed from the U.S. market. Hamilton (86 and 151) was the replacement, and these rums indeed come very close to the flavor profile of classic Lemon Hart. In mid-2016, Lemon Hart 151 returned, and The Mai-Kai went back to using it as the 151 Demerara while keeping Hamilton as the standard Demerara in all the cocktails. Confused? I don’t blame you. Check out our full story on Demerara rums at The Mai-Kai for more on the rich history of these rums.

• I’ve always noted the distinct flavor of Jamaican rum in The Mai-Kai’s latest version of the Demerara Float, so I initially went with Appleton Special gold (now known as J. Wray Gold) as a nice supplement to the 151 floater (see version 2 below). But there was something missing. The lighter gold rum worked well with the 151, but when I retooled the recipe to feature the Hamilton 86 float, it was lacking flavor. So I stepped up the Jamaican rum to an older marque from the J. Wray & Nephew distillery. There are two blended rums in the Appleton Estate line that work perfectly: Appleton Estate Signature Blend (used widely at The Mai-Kai) and Appleton Estate Reserve Blend (aka 8-year) both work perfectly to approximate the flavors you’ll currently find in this cocktail.
  Related: Appleton master blender Joy Spence’s rum tasting at The Mai-Kai

• The Mai-Kai’s lime juice is distinct, a tart blend of Key lime and fresh-squeezed Persian lime juice. It elevates this drink by matching the bold flavors of the rum and syrup. Be sure to use a rich and flavorful passion fruit syrup, either homemade or a product from one of the many small-batch manufacturers (see above).

For lovers of Demerara rum, this resurrected classic cocktail is an essential addition to your repertoire.

Postscript (updated June 2024)

Derek Cole featured the latest version of the Demerara Float tribute recipe on his Make and Drink vlog on YouTube in June 2024, along with the Demerara Dry Float recipe from Smuggler’s Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum and the Cult of Tiki.

He also takes a detailed look at the glassware and ice feature, revealing new information on the distinctive vessel as well as providing a helpful demo on prepping an ice-lined glass. Click here or watch below …

In April 2021, Spike Marble featured the Demerara Float on his YouTube show, Spike’s Breezeway Cocktail Hour. The episode featured version 2 below, along with one of the best hands-on demonstrations on how to make an ice shell. Check it out here …

When were were asked to provide our input to the Rum Reader for an article on “Tiki’s Minor Stars,” we didn’t hesitate to honor the Demerara Float. Published online in July 2019, the article includes version 3 above, but featuring a 151 rum float.

To show the evolution of the tribute recipes, we’re including the first two versions below. Version 2 was created after the Demerara Float was rolled out at special events in 2013 and featured until May 2017, when version 3 was posted. The original version (posted when this review went up in 2012) was my take on what I thought Mariano Licudine may have created based on Don the Beachcomber’s 1941 recipe above. It may be overly complex compared to the others, but it’s tasty nonetheless.

Tribute to The Mai-Kai’s Demerara Float, v.2
By The Atomic Grog, circa 2013

• 1 ounce fresh lime juice
• 3/4 ounce rich passion fruit syrup
• 3/4 ounce gold Jamaican rum
• 1 ounce Demerara rum
• 3/4 ounce 151 Demerara rum

Pulse blend everything – except 151 rum – with 1/2 cup of crushed ice in a spindle mixer for 6-8 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail or a specialty glass with ice shell. Float 151 rum.

Notes and tips for home mixologists

• The ice shell is a Mai-Kai trademark used in many cocktails, from the elaborate Special Reserve Daiquiri and Gardenia Lei to more modest Tahitian Breeze. For the Demerara Float, we followed a similar style to the Demerara Cocktail as well as the long-running classic Shark Bite. Those in the know also enjoy the ice feature in the off-menu Zula #2.

In addition to the videos above, we recommend you check out this comprehensive tutorial by Mai-Kai historian and author Tim “Swanky” Glazner …

Tribute to The Mai-Kai’s Demerara Float, v.1
By The Atomic Grog, circa 2012

• 1 1/2 ounces fresh lime juice
• 1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
• 1 ounce passion fruit syrup
• 1/2 ounce rich honey mix
     (2 parts honey, 1 part water)
• 3/4 ounce Demerara rum
• 3/4 ounce 151 Demerara rum
• 1/2 ounce dark Jamaican rum
• 1 dash Angostura bitters

Shake everything – except 151 rum – with ice cubes. Strain into a double old-fashioned or specialty glass filled with crushed ice. Float 151. Do not stir.

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Mahalos!

We’d like to thank Hidden Harbor for featuring their own spin on our versions of The Mai-Kai’s Demerara Float and Demerara Cocktail as part of their “Tuesday Tiki Time Machine” menu in October 2016. (If you can’t see the Facebook post below, click here.)

If you’re ever in Pittsburgh, be sure to check out this modern Tiki bar with great cocktails and an appreciation for the classics as well as inventive new originals.

We’re happy to see the Demerara Float also pop up in the social media feeds of dedicated home bars …

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@themaikai Demerara Float (1973) and The Atomic Grog's Tribute to The Mai-Kai’s Demerara Float (v.3) complete with ice shells. I love all of these rums: @rumalways 151, #edwincharley, @eldoradorums 12, #rondelbarrilito 3 Star #rum #drinkmorerum #rumtime #colasc #Demerararum #atomicgrog

A post shared by Scott French (@therumtrader) on Jul 29, 2017 at 9:58pm PDT