Lunar New Year (which runs until February 15) is all about bidding farewell to last year and bringing in luck and prosperity for the new one. For such an auspicious occasion, you want to make sure you’re eating and drinking well. Dumplings are a no brainer –as well as being easy to make delicious staples, they’re said to symbolise wealth and prosperity for the year ahead. You’re going to want a drink to match.
“That was the reason behind using Nikka Coffey Grain whisky,” says Darren Leaney (group bar manager of Aru and Sunda) a smart whisky cocktail dubbed the Golden Tiger Highball created just for the occasion.
“It’s just a pretty blinged out Japanese whisky. But in reality, any single malt, Scotch, Irish, cognac would work. Basically, a bottle of whisky that’s almost sacrilege to mix will just make the drink better.”
The second major element of Leaney’s highball is green tea – a pairing that came from the idea of sipping the drink next to a steaming hot bowl of dumplings. “When you go for dumplings, you often have a cup of green tea to accompany it. That was the inspiration,” he says. In this recipe he’s using a homemade syrup of Japanese-style sencha tea, but most green teas will substitute nicely.
“Whisky has a really good savoury element to it, and that ties in really nicely with the umami, seaweedy sort of character of the sencha first-flush tea,” says Leaney. “So you get this really nice, savoury, cleansing tea, and soft tannins that just help take the harsh edges off the whisky.”
To round out those savoury flavours, Leaney uses a combination of lychee syrup (from the tin of lychees) and Manzanilla sherry. The lychee syrup brings a fruity sweetness, while the Manzanilla adds complexity and brings all the flavours together. “A lot of whisky is aged in ex-sherry casks and so you’ve got this really nice interplay between the nutty and fruity notes that come out of the sherry and whisky,” says Leaney. “Also, Manzanilla has a really nice coastal, saline quality and that ties in really beautifully with the green tea and whisky.”
Then of course comes the dumpling. “I think the fatty, meaty, spicy, wheaty notes that you get from dumplings and their wrappers should work quite nicely in contrast with the highball, which is cool, clean, savoury and a little bit acidic,” says Leaney. “That should help act as a cleanser between each bite or each sip. The light tannins of the tea with the subtle malt, fruit and nutty tones of the drink cut through the fat and temper the spice.”
Assembly of the drink is as quick and simple as frying up a plate of dumplings. With a few lumps of ice in a highball or collins glass, add all your liquids except soda. stir, top with soda and garnish. The garnish –optional, but recommended given the occasion – is a lychee dusted with real gold. To prepare, remove a lychee from the tin, dry it off with a kitchen towel and apply some edible gold.
Here's how to make the Golden Tiger Highball at home.
Golden Tiger Highball
Makes 1 serving.
Approx. 1.45 standard drinks.
Ingredients:
2.5g sencha green tea
1 cup water
1 cup caster sugar
Ice
30ml Nikka Coffey Grain whisky
10ml Manzanilla sherry
5ml lychee syrup
Soda water
Method:
To make the sencha tea syrup, bring 2.5g tea and 1 cup of water to the boil. Steep for 5 minutes. Strain through coffee paper, add 1 cup caster sugar. Stir to dissolve.
Place ice in a highball or collins glass. Add 10ml of the sencha tea syrup to the whisky, sherry and lychee syrup and stir. Top with soda and gently combine. Garnish with gold lychee.
This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Golden Wok dumplings. Find the Golden Wok dumplings made in collaboration with Diana Chan at Coles, Woolworths and selected IGAs.
