The Bar at China Tang brings the unique taste of Chinese Fenjiu baijiu to London with a range of cocktails.
Walk the length of The Dorchester hotel’s extravagant main promenade to the very back, and you’ll encounter a discrete door tucked off to the left. Pass through the door before following the steps down, and you will find your way to The Bar at China Tang.
Here, the extravagance of The Dorchester gives way to a far more intimate place as you are transported back to 1930s Art Deco Shanghai.
Sir David Tang created the Mayfair hotel’s world-famous Chinese restaurant China Tang. At The Bar, Sir Tang reimagined his living room as a treat to every visitor.
The dimmed lights, dark wooden tables, and jewelled bar can easily take you away from the hustle and bustle of the world outside.
It offers a range of pan-Asian influenced cocktails. With plenty to choose from, and the excellent China Tang team to welcome you it can be easy to relax for the evening sipping your way across Asia while enjoying all the food China Tang has to offer.
The restaurant serves a range of Cantonese dim sum, as well as favourites from across China like Peking duck and Xiao Long Bao.
If you’re looking for a drink to pair perfectly with the aesthetics, then there is no better choice than the Fenjiu baijiu cocktails on offer.
It wouldn’t be an understatement to describe baijiu as China’s national drink. From a luxury gift for visiting dignitaries to old friends catching up, baijiu is the drink of choice.
Typically distilled from grains like sorghum, the clear white spirit is strong. It can vary from 35% to up to 60% alcohol. It’s not just one alcohol, varying considerably by region and style.
Its popularity in China makes it the world’s most popular liquor by volume. However, outside China it hasn’t caught on quite so well. With a distinctive taste and quite a kick, it can take some getting used to.
But at China Tang, Bartender Leo has taken Cheng International’s Fenjiu baijiu and incorporated it into a series of cocktails. He has taken this thousands-year-old drink and succeeded in updating it for the 21st century.
He first came across Baijiu five years ago, and since then has become quite the expert.
“I’ve tried like… 250 different baijiu’s. So, I’ve seen the spectrum.”
This experience helped him work with an alcohol that can be quite different from what people in the West are used to. “Challenging” is the first word that comes to his mind when asked what working with baijiu is like, “But at the same time, we’re playing with different flavours completely, and it’s exciting.”
He believes the results speak for themselves: “It really creates something unique.”
Of the cocktails he’s created using Fenjiu, he seems most proud of Long Lin: “It’s going to be the signature Fenjiu baijiu cocktail. Yeah, it’s going to stay on the menu. I can see it already. Sometimes we’ll keep the cocktail, if it is worth it, for longer on the menu. I think Long Lin is going to stay for quite, quite, a long time. It’s a top seller at the moment.”
For anyone who hasn’t tried baijiu before, he strongly recommends to give it a go.
“Come, discover, maybe first in a cocktail, and then try baijiu itself.”
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