Danny Louie brings a number of zany cocktails to San Francisco's Chino, a pan asian restaurant owned by the same people as Tacolicious. Trained in the cocktail classics at his former post Alembic, Danny makes several plays on old conventions in these inventive drinks without making the flavors too cloying or tart. Like the food, Danny's cocktails are inspired by the Asian theme and make use of a lot of tea as a featured ingredient. The cocktails may not look or sound serious but they are carefully crafted. Danny uses high quality spirit, juices they squeeze themselves, and syrups they make in house.

A great example of Danny's bold style is the Chinatown Iced Tea. Tell us that even one of the drink's ingredients is not surprising: Baijiu (roughly translated in Chinese as run away—OK, so actually it means rice liquor. I have had many warnings about this coarse spirit, but the Baojing, label that Danny uses, is actually a delicate expression of it and tastes almost like an Asian pear), almond milk, passion fruit, and Lipton Tea. The drink is served long and is reminiscent of many tiki drinks, but much more nuanced, largely from the almond milk. Frothy, light, and delicious.









For more on Danny Louie's China drinks, including many more pictures, see the original post on The Joy of Drinking.