Hong Kong’s heritage captured in cocktails

From Mr Wu’s famous Hot Sauce to the verdant peace of the New Territories,  the entrepreneurial, restless spirit of Hong Kong has been encapsulated in a series of cocktails created by the InterContinental Hotel.

Old Hong Kong… barely recognisable today © Gwulo

The InterContinental’s new #852tails cocktail range pays tribute to Hong Kong’s rather tumultuous history and mixed heritage – from over 100 years of British rule to being handed back to China in 1997 – and its obsession with money and idiosyncratic eating rituals.

Comprising the auspicious number of eight cocktails and five mocktails, the range tips its hat to various famous Hong Kong landmarks, characters and sweet snacks, including the staple of afternoon tea: Bo Lo Bau or pineapple bun.

Click through to explore Hong Kong’s mercurial nature in cocktail form…  

President’s Gift

When Richard Nixon visited China in 1972, the Premier Zhou Enlai gave him sweets shaped like white rabbits. Today, White Rabbit treats are found throughout Hong Kong and have been immortalised in the President’s Gift cocktail which blends vodka infused with White Rabbit, espresso and arrives garnished with a white chocolate rabbit.

HK$165

Sai Yeung Choi Street

Visitors to Hong Kong now will be amazed that most of its urban jungle used to be paddy fields and sleepy farming villages. Sadly over the last century, Hong Kong’s verdant patches have been swallowed up by hastily constructed skyscrapers and industrial buildings as Hong Kong’s economy boomed in the 1960s.

Sai Yeung Choi is the Cantonese name for watercress and has been immortalised in a street built in 1924 on a watercress cultivation in a village called Mong Kok Tsuen (旺角村) – now known as Mong Kok and one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

The Sai Yeng Choi cocktail uses Champagne, watercress, citrus and local Hong Kong honey.

HK$165

Tea Time

Apart from playing mahjong, gambling and pushing prams filled with poodles, is there anything else Hong Kongers love more than breaking for afternoon tea?

The afternoon tea staple, Bo Lo Bau or pineapple bun is found all over Hong Kong ever since the government listed it as part of Hong Kong’s ‘intangible cultural history’ in 2014 and is often eaten at exactly 3.15pm when Hong Kongers rightly feel they deserve a tea break after a hard day’s slog in the office.

Paying homage to the sticky, sweet treat, Tea Time is a blend of butter rum, pineapple, local Hong Kong honey and citrus and is served with a… mini pineapple bun.

HK$165

Victorian Lager

Hong Kong’s glittering Victoria Harbour has served as the backdrop for many a sweeping panorama, and rightly so as over the years, the port has witnessed many a battle and was instrumental in Hong Kong’s establishment as a British colony and its subsequent development as a global trading hub.

The ‘fragrant harbour’, where Hong Kong takes its name, is captured in the Victorian Lager cocktail which uses Chinese tea, tequila, orange and Hong Kong brewed beer.

HK$165

Mr. Yu

One of the original Hong Kong entrepreneurs, Mr. Yu Siu Kee [余兆基] humbly sold his chilli sauce in the dark alleyways of Sai Ying Pin in the 1920s.

The Yu family recipe has been handed down through the generations and is still run by Mr. Yu’s descendants.

Yu Kwen Yick Hot Sauce is now one of Hong Kong’s greatest exports and is served all over the world in five-star hotels and Michelin-starred restaurants.

The Mr Yu cocktail is a blend of Cognac, Port, berries, vanilla, citrus and of course, Yu Kwen Yick Hot Sauce.

HK$165