The Lychee Martini’s Going Back to Its Roots

Every year, once the summer sun drenches New York streets, I pick up bunches of lychees from the fruit markets in Flushing, Queens, where I grew up. Those who only know the fruit from its infamous ’tini are missing out. Snap off the red leathery peel, and the translucent white flesh is subtly sweet, floral and juicy. There has always been a world of difference between real lychees and the cloyingly sugary cocktails that bear the name but invoke more syrup than fruit. That is, until now.

Lychee Martinis were created in 1990s NYC, though their origins are disputed. Depending on who you ask, the creator is either a midtown Korean restaurant, Clay, or the Japanese sake bar, Decibel, on the Lower East Side. The cocktail went on to become the liquid catchall for Asian flavors in Americanized bars and restaurants, the likes of Ruby Foo’s, Tao and Panda Inn. But recently, the drink has become a platform for Asian reclamation, and it’s closer than ever to capturing the real splendor of the fresh fruit and the culinary customs around it.

At 929, a sexy, dimly lit, Chinese pop music-themed speakeasy in midtown Manhattan, beverage director Chaoyi Chen draws on nostalgic memories. Since childhood, Chen, who previously ran Pawn Bar in Taipei, has heard the legend of an imperial eighth-century Tang Dynasty concubine who craved lychee so much that Emperor Xuanzong built a “lychee highway” to bring the perishable fruit from farms in Guangdong to the capital of Chang’an, present-day Xi’an. 

A major global lychee producer itself, Taiwan boasts a bar scene that features the fruit prominently. There, Chen says, lychee cocktails often pair the fruit with clear spirits (white rum, gin, vodka, pisco) and, reflective of local tea culture, a green or lightly roasted oolong tea (black tea would overwhelm lychee’s subtlety). Following in that tradition, the Shanghainese Summer Fling, which Chen serves at 929, calls on clarified lychee puree and jasmine green tea. The drink is an ode to breakfast rituals of savory soy milk and tea. It’s very creamy, built on a base of milk-washed vodka, and topped with salted soy milk foam with bruleed sugar.