CNY Bartender: Let the Luck in with Finders Keepers' Happily Ever After

Vincent R. Vinci, Contributing Editor | Feb 6, 2022 4:30 pm | Add a comment | 132 reads

It might be the last day of the Chinese New Year holiday, but why not send it out with a bang with this special drink recipe from Finders Keepers, a swanky speakeasy bar hidden within the business section of a mall close to Workers’ Stadium.

Titled Happily Ever After, owner and head bartender Yang Yang says the drink is a play on the auspicious homophone for the characters 桔 ju as found in 桔子 juzi, the word for kumquat, and 吉 ji which means luck. The cocktail works to utilize kumquats in a more refreshingly alcoholic way, making it a kind of gin and tea-spiked sour.

Happily Ever After

Ingredients

60ml London dry gin (preferably Gordon’s)
50ml Vita Lemon Tea drink
15ml Rich honey Syrup*
25ml Fresh lemon juice
Juice from half a kumquat

Garnish: half a caramelized kumquat**

Method

1.Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake with ice for 20-30 seconds.

2.Strain into a cocktail glass filled with ice.

3.Garnish with the caramelized kumquat.

*To make the honey syrup: in a small saucepan combine 100ml of honey with 50ml of water over low heat. Stir until combined and honey is thinned. Let stand and cool before putting in a refrigerator-safe container. Will last for one month.

**To caramelize the kumquat half: Take a sliced kumquat half and, using a match or stick lighter, burn the fruit until it is tinged golden brown.