Tatler+ Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong
Created by Tatler Dining's Bartender of the Year, Devender Sehgal, the eight new cocktails will be available from August 3
Recognised as one of Asia’s 50 Best Bars and a Top 10 Bar in the Tatler Dining Bar Awards 2022, The Aubrey at Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong has been providing insight into the world of Japanese liqueurs and brewed rice wines since opening, and is clearly doing something right. Continuing to innovate and build upon its recent triumphs, the modern Japanese izakaya is introducing a new drinks programme that featured the most prevalent Japanese spirit—shochu.
Made from grains and vegetables, shochu is typically crafted with sweet potato, barley, rice, buckwheat, or sugar cane, to create a diverse range of flavour profiles to suit different tastes. Versatile and easy to drink, the distilled spirit is great when paired with food and despite being the most popular and widely consumed spirit in Japan, it remains lesser-known in other parts of the world. Hoping to change that is Mandarin Oriental's hotel beverage manager and Tatler Dining's Bartender of the Year, Devender Sehgal.
"It’s a refined drink that is made the traditional way and speaks to our desire for the artisanal," shares Sehgal. "Shochu is so well thought out as distillers have spent more than 500 years perfecting the process. The Aubrey is pleased to be the foremost bar in Hong Kong focusing on shochu, and to play an educational role by creating original cocktails that bring out the nuances of this exceptional spirit.”
Much like Champagne, parmesan cheese or parma ham, shochu has an internationally protected geographical indication (GI) that identifies that it must come from a specific region to comprise certain qualities or characteristics. Sehgal, who has visited many shochu distilleries in Japan, has created eight new cocktails using shochu with a GI from four prefectures in southern Japan, including Satsuma shochu (made with sweet potato) from the island of Kyushu; Iki shochu (made with barley) from Iki island; Kuma shochu (made with rice) from the city of Hitoyoshi; and Ryukyu awamori (made with Thai long-grain rice), a type of shochu indigenous to Okinawa.
Cocktails to try include Harmony which uses sauvignon blanc juice to bring out the sweet potato characters of satsuma shochu. The juice also provides a natural sweetness, while a zing of citric acid adds a refreshing note to this effervescent cocktail. Meanwhile, Two Row Barley uses Iki shochu and Scotch whisky for a barley-based rendition of the classic Bobby Burns cocktail with sweet vermouth rosso and the herbaceous Bénédictine; Mizu No Kuni (meaning land of water) uses Kuma shochu, along with sweet potato shochu, amontillado sherry and banana liqueur for a cocktail with depth; and Worship makes use of aged awamori with Lillet Blanc, white crème de cacao, Champagne vinegar and mirin for a floral martini-like cocktail nuanced with savoury notes and chocolate.
