Jasmine Punch

Tea cocktails are some of my favorite, but are notoriously tricky to get right. Their often subtle flavors can make them hard to integrate into a cocktail. With this recipe from More Savory Goods though, I knew this would be good. The first step was to source jasmine pearls. We only had ordinary jasmine leaves in the pantry, and I was pretty sure their aroma wouldn't be strong enough. However, if it's one thing the Bay Area is good for, it's having a specialty shop for every type of product. For tea, the go to place is Steepers, a tea specialty shop in downtown Campbell. They have a huge variety of teas, ranging from common to rare, Chinese to British. It's here that I got their jasmine pearls.

The recipe involves making a jasmine milk tea first, rather than infusing the pearls in liquor. I think the heat brings out the aroma more and really puts the flavor into the milk. I then needed lychee puree, but it wasn't readily available and any online product I found had lychee puree in obscenely large quantities. I decided to then pay a visit to my local Asian supermarket, where I scored some canned lychees. While lychees are currently in season, I decided to go with canned so the puree would be a little more sweet. I muddled each lychee individually through a strainer, though I think it would've been faster to blend it then strain it through an oil filter. For our main alcohol component, some Roku gin worked splendidly, though I did add 6 oz instead of the 4.5 oz in the original recipe for a boozier drink.

Afterwards, it was a simple mix with milk with lemon juice as the curdling agent and filtering it out. This cocktail is a fan favorite with everyone that's tried it, as the jasmine flavor balances well with the lychee and gin.

• 1½ oz lemon juice

• 1½ oz lychee puree

• 1½ oz simple syrup

• 6 oz gin

• 6 oz jasmine milk tea

To make jasmine milk: add 250 mL of water, heat it up to 185 degrees, then add jasmine pearls. After they bloom and the water changes color, add 250 mL of whole milk and let sit for 10-15 minutes.

• Combine first four ingredients together. Add milk to a different vessel, then pour the mixture into the milk.

• Pass through oil filter until clear.

To serve:

• Pour 3.5 oz of clarified jasmine milk tea punch into a mixing glass

• Bar spoon of yellow chartreuse

• Stir with ice until cold

• Strain over ice into rocks glass.