Drink in Focus: Milk & Honey at Kinsman

A nostalgic journey through Hong Kong’s past, the cocktail blends local Yuk Bing Siu Zhao spirit with milky oolong tea, lychee honey, and a touch of licorice

Reading Time:3 minutes

Milk & Honey is one of the three bestsellers for Kinsman in Hong Kong. Photo: Handout

Published: 6:00pm, 24 Jan 2025

Where baijiu – typically seen in Mao-tai bottles – may be more heavily associated with northern China, Hong Kong is home to its own array of distilled Cantonese (or Guangdong) spirits.

Those who call this city home may be familiar with Mei Kuei Lu Chiew, a sorghum-based spirit generally used for cooking, or the medicinal Ng Ka Py, which evokes concentrated amaro-esque flavours and is more often used in Chinese medicine than drunk for pleasure. Then there’s Yuk Bing Siu.

A more straightforward pour, Yuk Bing Siu is a relatively stiff 29 ABV. That’s why the best way to enjoy it is in a cocktail, specifically at Singular Concepts’ Kinsman, as a key ingredient in the bar’s popular Milk & Honey.

The Milk & Honey was a cornerstone of Kinsman’s launch last year and was initially developed for a guest shift Yeung worked at Plantation Tea Bar. As he explains, “The idea was to build a cocktail around [Plantation Tea Bar’s] Shanlinxi milky oolong tea from Taiwan,” explains Kinsman co-founder Gavin Yeung, also associate editor at the South China Morning Post’s PostMag. “I wanted to accentuate the ‘milky’ flavour of the tea with Yuk Bing Siu – which I find to have milky notes – and a homemade milk liqueur.”

“We source our Yuk Bing Siu from local heritage business Wing Lee Wai, which is over 120 years old,” continues Yeung, “making them a very rare breed in Hong Kong. They are also only 600 metres down the road from Kinsman, making this a hyperlocal pour,”

Milk & Honey is a combination of Yuk Bing Siu, milk liqueur, pineapple rum, lychee honey, sparkling milky oolong tea and licorice root tincture. Photo: Handout

The drink’s experience starts with the multiple expressions of this idea of “milk”, starting with the Yuk Bing Siu. “I would describe it as tasting like milk, pandan, vanilla and rose,” says Yeung. “The milky notes accentuate the entire character of the drink, while the spirit itself is surprisingly smooth.”

The cocktail’s custom milk liqueur is made by acid-adjusting (via citric acid) vodka, then milk-washing it to change its texture. “While it doesn’t add a whole lot of flavour, it does a great job at softening the edge of the other spirits while adding a milky finish to the cocktail.” Yuk Bing Siu is combined with this bespoke creation along with milky oolong tea and lychee honey and then carbonated. To finish, licorice root tincture is added, and the drink is served in a tall glass garnished with a Fujiya Milk candy.