It all started when a dear friend of mine who loves Calm Tea had a house party for her birthday. I thought it would be a great gift to surprise her with mixing cocktails with her favorite drink at the party, taking a bit of the burden off her shoulders in terms of hospitality.
Since I'm not a bartender, and I mostly only understand cocktails from the consumer side, I started the task with research. In any case, I wanted to come up with a drink that is easy to make, doesn't use hard-to-find ingredients, and doesn't require any extra tools, and any one of the guests at the party can easily enjoy the end product.
I found a cool tea - bourbon whiskey cocktail recipe that served as a good initial inspiration. Since I really like whiskey, I thought of Whiskey Sour as a direction to follow.
SHANGHAI SOUR
Ingredients:
- 1 large ice cube (or 3-4 normal ice cubes)
- 15 ml lemon juice (freshly squeezed or 100% concentrate from the store)
- 45 ml Blended Scotch whisky
(I found it to be best with a smooth, mild Scotch and went with Dewar's White Label. Feel free to give it a spin with any other whiskey, though.) - 120 ml Calm Tea
- 1 lemon wedge (or lemon peele)
Preparation:
- Put the large ice cube in an old fashioned glass (highball glass also works), then stir it with a spoon for 10-15 seconds to chill the glass.
- Pour the lemon juice on the ice, then the whiskey also.
- Pour the chilled Calm Tea in, then mix it with a spoon for 10-15 seconds.
- Garnish with lemon wedge or lemon peele.
The cocktail is pleasantly refreshing and it is a real flavor bomb. The sourness of the lemon is more dominant at the beginning, followed by the slight smokiness of the whiskey and then the floral character of the tea. It is easy to enjoy even for those who are otherwise not crazy about whiskey, because the tea-citrus flavor nicely rounds off the smokey notes.
I also made a very simple video about making the cocktail, which you can watch here.
Cheers! 干杯!
