Rubin Verebes is the managing editor of Foodie and is very opinionated. Transforming his hobby of eating and drinking into a career, he shares his account of Hong Kong’s F&B scene and the worldwide state of dining in Rubin’s Take, a monthly opinion column.
110 years ago, Ngiam Tong Boon, the head bartender at the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel in Singapore, created the Singapore Sling, a gin-based cocktail mixing cherry brandy, dry curaçao, pineapple and lime juice, and ice in one tall glass.
Celebrated at the turn of the century, the cocktail was seemingly lost to history from the 1930s when the original recipe vanished, before returning to the palatial hotel in 2018 where the Singapore Sling enjoyed a renewed update with liquor created using ecoSPIRITS technology.
To the city-state, the Singapore Sling represents a former and current drinks obsession. To cool down from the often choking heat, an icy cocktail is required, boosted by a familiar sweetness and spiciness that Singapore’s cuisine is known for.
Across an ocean, the arch-rival-cum-friendly competitor of Hong Kong equally loves a drink. In 2025, the city earned itself six places on Asia’s 50 Best Bars, including the number one spot for Bar Leone. Cocktails have become an essential part of consuming Hong Kong today.
But, where is Hong Kong’s local cocktail? What could possibly pack 160 years of colonial and modern, Western and Asian identities of Hong Kong into a cool glass?
A number of cocktail bars, new and old, have looked within to promote flavours that city patrons can be proud about. The grungey Kowloon City-themed Kowloon Shing Chai Lounge in Tsim Sha Tsui excels with crafting cocktails using the sweet flavors of Hong Kong, such as their tangy-sweet Yakult Fruit.
Dio | Cafe Bar in West Kowloon sells their Salted Soy Milk Martini in a list of six classic cocktails made with Hong Kong twists, whereas ohm… cafe and bar focuses primarily on beloved Hong Kong flavours and infuses alcohol, such as the vodka-based Black Sesame Soup.
If you are searching for your favourite liquor Hong Kongified, Bad Coffee & Liquor Club does the trick with drinks like the karaoke-favourite mix Whisky Green Tea.
Where SoHo’s cocktail bars attempt to transport you to different worlds, be that Japan, Cuba, the Mediterranean, or beyond our solar system, most other bars dotted in Hong Kong rely on classic cocktails to lure customers. The Hong Kong cocktail is still a niche.
Why does Hong Kong need a local cocktail? Hong Kong’s cuisine is locally strong and globally well-known. Tourists flock here for pineapple buns, egg tarts, roast pork, dim sum, wonton noodles, and claypot rice. These are foods to be proud about.
Yet, there is nothing drinkable in alcoholic form that can remind people of what makes them proud about Hong Kong.
Cocktail bars and cocktails itself were not a strength for the city 110 years ago, barely even 50 years ago, but it is true now that Hong Kong can’t get enough of it. What type of ingredients or spirits would diffuse together to become Hong Kong’s local cocktail?
Possibly an ice lemon tea bourbon mix, where the sweetness of a cha chaan teng classic blends smoothly with an earthy and dark liquor.
A yuen yeung whisky sour would bring together another morning drink classic within a format familiar to the Hong Kong drinkers palette.
What if we blended Hong Kong’s savoury side within a cocktail? How about a spicy gin martini infused with a salty and spicy XO sauce, or the boldness of soy sauce?
And the sweet side? An egg tart-flavoured vodka-based cocktail would be a pick of mine, so too with a tofu pudding-meets-White Russian or tong yuen-flavoured old fashioned.
Hong Kong-inspired cocktails tend to only take up space in new menus themed on an old version of the city, or treated as a footnote in an expansive menu that covers the classics before anything else.
As the city and world is already familiar with what Hong Kong cuisine stands for on the table, the time is now to create a Hong Kong cocktail that stands synonymous with how we drink here.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author’s and do not represent or reflect the views of Foodie.
