New Year cheers

This page, clockwise from top: Jackwing Yao, head bartender at SanYou; One of the drinks on the menu; The central bar; The team at SanYou; Far right: Jackwing Yao

It's the Year of the Rabbit this Chinese New Year and to celebrate, Holly Graham shares some of the best bars and drinks in the region

Chinese New Year begins with the new moon that rises between late January and late February, and is celebrated throughout China and Asia. Lunar New Year holiday traditions include family gatherings, house cleaning to cleanse the home of bad luck, giving and receiving money in red (representing good fortune) envelopes, dragon dances and processions.

It’s also a great opportunity to highlight the region’s bars, kicking off with SanYou in Shenzhen, from the Hope & Sesame Group. Along with its sister branch in Guangzhou, this cocktail bar is known for evangelising baijiu, where it showcases 12 varieties of the Chinese spirit and its versatility through cocktails.

Jackwing Yao (above), head bartender of SanYou Shenzhen, mixes sorghum light-aroma style baijiu with wasabi oil fat-washed white rum, Midori, mintinfused Fernet Hunter, fresh lemon juice and rock sugar syrup to create a more herbaceous and complex version of the Midori Sour, a cult favourite tipple.

Not Your Midori uses light-aroma style baijiu to add a pear-like aroma to the drink, and the wasabi oil fat-washed rum gives it the pungent kick and identity of a tiki cocktail. For those unfamiliar with Fernet Hunter, it’s a modern twist on classic Italian bitters made in Austria, which has been adopted as a Hong Kong brand as the founders are based in the city. They also, in partnership with DarkSide bar in Hong Kong and local forager Wanda Huang, created Hong Kong’s first amaro and arguably one of the first in Asia.

Speaking of Hong Kong and an evangelical passion for spirits, COA, currently number one on Asia’s 50 Best

Left: COA owner Jay Khan; Below: One of the many delicious agave cocktails on the menu; The bar in focus

Bars list for the second year running, is a shrine to agave spirits and craft cocktails. Helmed by Jay Khan, the Oaxacan-style drinking den is a passion-project-turnedaward-winning bar, inspired by Khan’s trips to Mexico and its spoil of spirits.

COA is the epicentre for agave in the region. Khan’s diligent, patient and educational approach to the agaveuninitiated has inspired legions of drinkers to shun the trauma of tequila shot-fuelled hangovers. Through cocktails, tasting flights and masterclasses, COA – which takes its name from the machete-like tool used to harvest agave – has expanded with a second branch in Shanghai.

Khan’s community service knows no bounds. In late 2020, he and fellow agave enthusiast Andrew Davis created Mezcal Mission – an initiative to spread agave love and help others – with a series of bi-weekly mezcal tasting experiences, hosted at COA, with all proceeds donated to a local charity. Khan is renowned for showcasing family-owned small-batch agave spirits, recognised for helping their local communities, and was inspired to do the same by giving back to his.

Copitas (small clay cups for drinking mezcal) and agave spirits dominate the back bar, but the spirit collection here is diverse, with a solid menu of classics and even homemade horchata. Ask Khan and the team if they have any fermentation experiments on the go and you may be lucky enough to sip some of their house tepache. COA doesn’t shy away from Asian ingredients, serving cocktails that combine regional variations such as Sichuan pepper, sesame oil and shiso with Mexican chillies.

Khan’s cocktail La Chinesca is inspired by a neighbourhood in Mexicali, once home to Mexico’s largest Chinese community. The area boasts more than 100 Chinese restaurants per capita, more than anywhere else in Mexico, mostly serving Cantonese cuisine. The drink features jalapeño-infused tequila blanco, mezcal joven, tomato and capsicum water, ginger honey, coriander, lemon, Tajin and sesame oil.

Over in Taichung, Taiwan, Summer Chen and her partner Darren Lim run Vender Bar – a place, quite literally, styled on a vending machine. Based on the premise that these machines are everywhere, providing essentials to keep you going throughout the day, Vender serves great drinks to get a night going or to cap off a great one.

The novelty-style entrance requires visitors to insert a coin to unlock the door. Of course, the bar houses actual vending machines, one selling bottled cocktails and beers, the other dispensing capsules, each containing an unknown cocktail – an added surprise.

Vender’s interactive cocktail menu features 12 compartments representing the house’s 12 signatures, each slot containing the main ingredients featured in the drink. Guests are encouraged to touch, taste, smell and explore the individual ingredients to gain a better understanding of the cocktails, guided by information in the menu detailing the taste profile. Each drink is named after a type of vending machine and features various herbs and spices from Southeast Asia.

Vender’s bestselling cocktail The Cigar Vending Machine uses Taiwanese cypress wood chips to TEASE out unique flavours reminiscent of smoking a cigar, inspired by Chen and Lim’s first foray into Cuban cigars and old Cuban rum. The cocktail blends the wood chips with dark rum, red-wine syrup, fresh lemon juice, egg white, aromatised wine and chocolate bitters.

For a region whose hospitality industry suffered heavily from COVID-19 restrictions, bars are finally starting to bounce back. Come visit and taste!

Above: Team Vender; Left: The interior at Vender; Below: The interactive cocktail menu

If you're looking for a sound track that's been curated with cocktails and conversation in mind, this is the one for you

The stage is set (p. 34), the food and drinks are sorted (p. 36), we’ve even provided a few helpful hacks if you're feeling particularly stressed (p. 44). The missing piece of the party at home puzzle? Apart from the people? The perfect party playlist.

Lancelot Narayan, creator/producer of groovy independent radio station The Departure Lounge has curated a selection of tracks specially for The Cocktail Lovers. “These tunes are the coolest match for any celebration at any time of year,” he says. “I’ve put together music from some of the finest international composers who prove themselves your ideal companions whatever your tipple of choice.”

The Departure Lounge is available 24 hours a day, tune in at musicforthejetset.com. Support the page by visiting patreon.com/ music4thejetset