Intro

So this drink includes two key ingredients that maybe not everyone will be familiar with: Korean honey citron tea and Li Hing Mui powder.

“Honey citron tea,” or sometimes called “yujacha” is a Korean marmalade made with yuzu and honey and/or sugar and it’s called a “tea” even though it’s clearly a marmalade because most Koreans mix it with boiling water. Since it has citrus and honey, it’s pretty soothing to drink if you have a cold. You should be able to find it at any Korean or Chinese grocery store and it’s a great way to enjoy yuzu since it’s usually pretty expensive to buy fresh in the US, if you can find it at all. I’d just recommend finding one with a mixture of honey and sugar because usually if it’s made entirely with honey, the honey flavor will overpower that amazing and aromatic yuzu taste. Besides in this cocktail and as a tea, I sometimes use it as a marmalade too!

“Li Hing Mui” are a Chinese snack that roughly translates to “traveling plum” (hence the cocktail name!) comprised of pickled and then dried plums. I used to love eating these a kid — even though I knew them as “huamei” then — but the flavor is a little hard to describe if you’ve never had them before: it’s a little sweet, sour, and kind of briny. Chinese people enjoy these whole or even powdered, which is what we use in this drink. The powder is AMAZING sprinkled on lots of stuff. I used to eat this sprinkled over sliced white peaches and pineapple, and the powder has become very popular in Hawaii. The Hawaiian sour gummy candies with this powder are especially popular and I’d also highly recommend trying these out. I typically prefer the Taiwanese versions of the powder because it has a more subtle flavor and isn’t a shocking (and somewhat concerning) bright red like the Hawaiian ones tend to be BUT it might be easier to find the Hawaiian brands online and at Asian grocery stores. This brand is usually the easiest to find, but either type works for this cocktail. I love the depth and complexity this powder adds to this otherwise sweet drink. The citron tea tastes somewhat flat in the drink (like a very one-dimensional and generic “sweet” flavor) and while the fresh lemon juice adds a needed tartness, this powder really takes it to the next level.

I’ll end this cocktail intro by briefly touching on the Maraschino cherry — don’t use that convention center garbage. You know, the “Maraschino cherries” they put in Shirley Temples and are nuclear red. My current favorite brand is the Fabbri Amarena cherries but the Luxardo brand is also good! These cherries add a luxurious dark sweetness to the drink. You can add some of the syrup into the cocktail if you want to make it sweeter, but I’d give it a try without adding extra syrup first because if you add too much it will just overwhelm the other flavors.

Hope you like this cocktail! More cocktails with Li Hing Mui to come (:

What You'll Need

For the citron tea (enough for 3 cocktails):

4 heaping TBSP of citron tea marmalade
1 cup boiling water

For each cocktail:

3 oz cooled citron tea
3 oz vodka
¼ tsp Li Hing Mui powder + more for the rim
½ oz fresh lemon juice
Garnish: Li Hing Mui powder rim & a Maraschino cherry (I like Fabbri Amarena & Luxardo brands — just don’t use those shitty Shirley Temple nuclear red cherries)

Instructions

Prepare the citron tea:

Add the citron tea marmalade to a mug or other heatproof container and boil the water
Once the water has started boiling, add the water to the marmalade, give it a good mix and set aside or in the fridge to cool

For the cocktail:

Using some of the squeezed lemon wedges, moisten a quarter to half of the rim of your glasses; dip the rim into a plate of Li Hing Mui powder
Once the citron tea has fully cooled, add 3 oz of the tea (make sure to mix and include some of the rinds too), vodka, Li Hing Mui powder, fresh lemon juice, and a good amount of ice to your cocktail shaker
Give the mixture a generous shake, add a Maraschino cherry to your glass, and then strain the drink into the glass
DRANK