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I write this to you from an uncomfortable stool at the Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. I came here to discover why the Singapore Sling, invented at this bar sometime between 1910 and 1915, is so famous. I see it at every dodgy airport bar, in every cocktail book – even though I don’t know of anyone who would comfortably order this vile mixture that tastes like thickened cough syrup and food colouring poured over a mug of sugar (for this pleasure at Raffles, it cost me HK$125). But to condemn this drink is to condemn the nation whose name is behind it. So I better tread carefully.

I’ve been thinking for some time about why Hong Kong doesn’t have a signature drink. Singapore’s got the Sling; Russia’s got the White Russian (and Black Russian for that matter even though it was invented by a Belgian); London’s got the Sidecar (among others); Ireland’s got Guinness; Mexico has the Margarita (though Texans will dispute this to their death-beds). And no introduction needed: The Cosmopolitan. So how come Hong Kong missed the international boat on this one?

If we are a first-tiered, world-class city, we should have a drink that symbolises us. It’s as essential to our region’s identity as an iconic landmark or national dish. So I went searching for a drink that represents Hong Kong.  

Then I remembered something Karen Mok told me: “Hong Kong people think imported is better than homegrown.” Is pride the reason we lack a national drink?

After a self-education on cities’ signature cocktails, I found that the commonality running between most national drinks is this: sweetness. You see it  in the fruit of sangria, and in Caipirinhas. Sugar, it seems, aids sales. Secondly, the most famous cocktails were created in hotel bars, famed restaurants and by the media: the Piña Colada was introduced in 1954 at the Caribe Hilton’s Beachcomber Bar in San Juan, and has been crowned the official drink of Puerto Rico since 1978; the classic Peach Bellini was invented between 1934 and 1948 at Harry’s Bar in Venice; the Sazerac was born at the Sazerac Coffee House in New Orleans in 1859, which was recently revived by the film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Further, on June 23, 2008, New Orleans proclaimed the Sazerac as the city’s official cocktail. And for just about every other classic cocktail we see on modern bar menus, the Petit Bar at the Ritz Paris wants to take credit.

Third trait: the origins of the main liquor component are homegrown. Rice wine, maybe our only alcoholic spawn, does not agree with me, but maybe as a wash it could give the drink a secret burn.

With friends, I tossed around the idea of creating a signature drink for Hong Kong. We made a laboratory of sorts and played around with plum sauces, liquors from the colonies, and got downright drunk in the process. Through our drunken stupor, we did invent one delight, the Wan Chai Wash, a combination of beer, vodka, whisky, gin, tequila, and kamikaze shots that is mixed with saliva and gastrointestinal juices, then poured over a 5am kebab.

One more restrained evening at Union J, I pondered what could represent Hong Kong in a glass. With Gani, the bartender, I mixed one and a half parts gin, one part crème de ginger, one part orange liquor, grapefruit soda, freshly crushed ginger and a topping of local carton iced lemon tea (the kind you find at Circle K). It was as refreshing as an icy Pimm’s lemonade on the hottest of Hong Kong days. I don’t know who said it first, we were evenly drunk by this time, but someone slurred out “Wong Island Iced Tea”. And that stuck as the name of this drink.

I’m not going to be so presumptuous as to say that the Wong Island Iced Tea should become Hong Kong’s national drink, I would just like for us to have representation in bars around the world. If not this cocktail, then maybe another, created by someone who knows what they are talking about, someone of mixing authority. With this in mind I asked several bartenders from hotel bars in Hong Kong to create what they think would be a good candidate for a drink to best represent our city.

There will be no contest or casting of votes for this drink. People can vote with their wallets and their taste-buds, and maybe the public relations world will do its thing to spread the gospel. Then hopefully one day I can sit at a dodgy bar in an airport sipping Hong Kong’s signature drink.

Angie Wong

THE COCKTAILS 

See our video on how they were made!

All drinks are available now and are subject to 10 per cent service charge.