Cocoa Orgeat and Ruby Chocolate Liqueur for the Perfect Mai Tai!

Hi, Friends of Cocktails! The iconic Mai Tai is bold, tropical, and legendary… but tonight we’re breaking all the rules. Forget almonds, today we’re replacing them with the rich, earthy snap of cacao orgeat meeting the berry-rich tang of homemade ruby chocolate liqueur, swirled into a next-level tiki masterpiece.

If you’re obsessed with rum, love chocolate, and crave drinks that push boundaries, you’re in the right place because today’s drink is a chocolate revolution. Before we start, here’s a fun fact about chocolate: Cultivation of cacao began over 3,000 years ago, in Mesoamerica by the Olmec civilization. Fast forward to today and we’re finding new ways of combining the amazing pairing that is rum and chocolate, inspired by Diplomatico’s Artisans of Taste program.

This is in fact the third time I’m making a cocktail inspired by Artisans of Taste, and you see the 2 previous ones in this playlist. But don’t worry, this isn’t about making a dessert in a glass, we’re making a Mai Tai that’s still balanced, boozy, and tropical. Here’s another fun fact: Cacao beans were so valuable, they were used as currency across Mesoamerica. They were even known as ‘food of the gods’.

While doing research for this episode I came across two fun Mai Tai variations, both with a foam crown. I found these on the tiki & cocktails subreddits respectively, with the first one, Monkeypod Mai Tai, originating from the Monkeypod Kitchen restaurant in Maui, where they created a twist on the Mai Tai by topping it with a foam made with honey and their house-made passionfruit syrup. Plus, you’re drinking it on Maui, so there’s no way that’s not delicious.

But the reason I found this was that a redditor, junglehaus.cocktails, thought it would be a great idea to add some cacao notes to it. So he created the Cacao Pod Mai Tai by swapping dark rum with cacao rum. By the way, Junglehouse Cocktail has a stunning Instagram page of his own, so shoutout for that.

We covered the classic Mai Tai a while ago, and I even made a fully clarified version of this iconic tiki cocktail. Today we’re skipping the classic build and going straight to the showstopper. Here’s what you’ll need for the Choco Mai Tai: For the combination of rums we’ll use Diplomatico Planas and Mantuano Rums.

Planas is clean and crisp, with subtle coconut and citrus notes that lighten up the blend. Mantuano brings rich, dried fruit and spice flavors that give the cocktail its classic depth. Both will pair nicely with our two DIY ingredients, our cacao orgeat and ruby chocolate liqueur. We’ll also need lime juice, orange blossom water, saline solution, and a garnish, which we’ll cover later.

Before I show you how to make our two chocolate ingredients, here’s another chocolate fact: The Mayans discovered you could roast, crush, and mix cacao beans with hot water, essentially inventing the first version of hot chocolate. Now first up, let’s make some cacao orgeat. The base is raw cacao nibs, as we want that intense, slightly bitter, earthy chocolate flavor you can’t get any other way. It’s Cocktail Time!

Cacao Orgeat

● 130g Raw, Unpeeled Cacao Nibs (or 120g if peeled)

● 300g · 10oz Warm Water

● 100g Sugar (per 100g of cacao liquid)

● 0.3g Gum Arabic (per 100g of cacao liquid)

● 0.08g Xanthan Gum (per 100g of cacao liquid)

First cover your cacao nibs in lukewarm water,  just enough water to cover them completely. I’ll soak them for at least an hour to soften them, making the blender’s job a lot easier. This also makes it easier to peel off the skin, so double benefits.

So after an hour, comes the peeling stage. If the nibs you got don’t have skins it’s straight in the blender, along with the warm water. Blend until the nibs break down fully, then we need to strain the mixture through a muslin clot, to get just the flavorful liquid. To really get all of the liquid, use one of my favorite hacks: a potato ricer. Just place the muslin cloth inside, fold it in and you’ll really be able to squeeze out way more than you would by just pressing it with your hands.

Now for the sweetening and thickening, for every 100g or about 3.5oz of cacao liquid you get, add 100g of sugar, 0.3g of gum arabic, and 0.08g of xanthan gum. These will act as thickener, stabilizer, and emulsifier for our orgeat. Blend everything together again until smooth and that’s your cacao orgeat done and ready. Don’t forget to bottle it, and add a label, and if there’s any separation of the orgeat just give it a quick shake before you open the bottle and you’ll be good.

Next up, the Creamy Ruby Chocolate Liqueur. It’s super easy to make, and you don’t need any special tools. But first, another fact about chocolate: The word chocolate originates from the Aztecs and their word for “bitter water”. The first part of making our chocolate liqueur will be mixing together strawberry water, sugar, salt, and gum arabic. Later we’ll add ruby chocolate and Diplomatico Planas Rum.

Strawberry Water

● 250g Fresh Strawberries

● 110g Water

● 1g Pectinex

Simply blend some fresh strawberries with water and Pectinex. Let this mixture rest for about 10 minutes, then strain it through a coffee filter, and that’s it. You’ve now got a vibrant, fruity base for our chocolate liqueur.

Ruby Chocolate Liqueur

● 300g Strawberry Water

● 100g Sugar

● 1.2g Salt

● 1.2g Gum Arabic

● 150g Ruby Chocolate

● 300mL · 10oz Diplomático Planas Rum

In a small pot combine everything but the rum and chocolate, heating everything without letting it boil. As soon as it’s fully combined, remove it from the heat and let it cool to about 45°C, or 113°F. A cooking thermometer is a must when working with chocolate, because if we added our ruby chocolate into the mixture while it’s still too hot it would ruin the delicate flavor and color of the chocolate.

So once it’s at the right temperature, add in the chopped ruby chocolate, and mix it until it’s fully melted. I’m using a magnetic stirrer here, but a simple whisk will also work just fine. Now for the final step, add in the rum, mix, and that’s really it–once you bottle and label it. Store this in the fridge, and it will develop its full flavor in a few days, but you can of course try it and use it in your next chocolate cocktail straight away. Just give it a shake if you see it has layered before you use it.

This time I added some fruity notes with the strawberry water, but you could also use some orange liqueur in combination with rum, or use orange-flavored dark chocolate. Either way, the ruby chocolate and fruity notes will work amazingly in this cocktail. As mentioned, don’t feel limited with the use of ruby chocolate, this method works with white, milk, or dark chocolate too.

Speaking of different chocolates, here’s more interesting things about chocolate: Chocolate made its way to Europe in the 16th century and right away French monks began infusing alcohol with cacao nibs and sweetening the mixture to create what would later become crème de cacao. With that we’re now ready for the grand finale: our Choco Mai Tai.

Choco Mai Tai

● 30mL · 1oz Diplomático Planas Rum

● 30mL · 1oz Diplomático Mantuano Rum

● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Ruby Chocolate Liqueur

● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Cacao Orgeat

● 22.5mL · 0.75oz Lime Juice

● 2 drops Orange Blossom Water

● 2 drops 20% Saline Solution

Garnish: Mint Bouquet, Cherry & Chocolate Piece

You can use a regular rocks glass full of ice, but I think this handmade clay vessel will make our cocktail even better looking, but first, we need to shake all ingredients with ice. We’ll strain over fresh ice in our clay vessel, add a straw, then top with crushed ice and garnish with a mint bouquet, which you first slap on the side of the glass to express those fresh herbal aromatics. Add a cherry and a small piece of chocolate as the final piece of the cocktail. Cheers!

You get creamy chocolate, enough fruitiness from the ruby liqueur, plenty of nuttiness from the cacao orgeat, and those layered rum flavors from Planas and Mantuano. It’s rich, balanced, and still a Mai Tai, even though we swapped the almond orgeat for chocolate. In short, it’s a crowd-pleaser. A perfect example of how you can twist a classic while keeping it true to its spirit.

If you want to experiment even more, think about what pairs well with different chocolates. We said Ruby brings the fruity, bright, berry-like notes, but you can go for white chocolate if you want creamy or vanilla flavors. Milk chocolate brings a combination of caramel, nutty, and sweet dairy notes, and dark chocolate is the way to go if you want intense, earthy, even bitter notes.

Before we wrap up, here’s a final fact about chocolate: It took them until 1875 to successfully combine cacao butter, sugar, and milk to create milk chocolate. That was done by Daniel Peter, a Swiss chocolatier. And I hope your takeaway from our Rum & Chocolate Masterclass is that there are endless ways to play with chocolate in cocktails.

Remember to make it fun, and if you come up with a recipe you’re proud of, share it in the comments below. We might just feature it in the Cocktail Times Newsletter, or an upcoming e-book, which we publish on our Patreon page. Until next time, cheers and thank you for watching, Friends of Cocktails!