Lunar New Year Cocktails

Lunar New Year is the perfect opportunity to add a little creativity to your menu, wherever your bar is based in the world. 

This could be as simple as using Chinese ingredients in your cocktails, for example tea (try exploring some of the more unusual flower teas such as osmanthus, or fermented green teas) fruits (longan, jujube, pomelo, or kumquat all have their own New Year associations), or even using honey-scented rice wine as the base spirit.

Or you can incorporate the tradition via garnishes, for example serving cocktails in traditional gaiwan teacups, using the lid to trap scents or smoke to add a little theatre for customers, or serving infused wines from bamboo.

If you want to get even more creative, you can use traditional stamps to press designs on to rice paper with dark bitters providing the ‘ink’, or you could use ‘chops’ imprint clear ice blocks with the traditional New Year characters for prosperity on your cocktails.

The options are endless!

• Lunar New Year is widely celebrated across the world.

• It is a time to connect with family and prepare for the year ahead - bringing wishes of good fortune, health and happiness.

• The celebration offers endless opportunities for bartenders to get creative with innovative cocktail offerings and ingredients.

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