Drink in Focus: Lee cocktail at The Green Door

Its recently updated menu of signatures features drinks like the Lee, which combines the bar’s food-based inspiration with a solid knowledge of classics, plus an added twist. For this latest batch of original cocktails, The Green Door has turned to an unconventional muse. Mr Koo is one of Hong Kong’s rising indie bands, taking the stage at Clockenflap the same year The Green Door opened to play its unique blend of surf rock, shoegaze and blues.

“Mr Koo envisioned this menu years ago,” says co-founder Arlene Wong, “and we are honoured to have him bring it to life. He wanted to create [along] a theme of ‘strangers/friends/lovers overnight after a few drinks’. The idea centres around the romantic experience of unexpectedly meeting the woman of his dreams over cocktails.”

The collaboration spawns 12 cocktails and three mocktails – each complete with a traditionally feminine or unisex name. The Lee particularly reminds Wong of her time living in the American South. “I used to live in Savannah, Georgia,” Wong explains, “and I really miss cornbread. I thought it paired beautifully with a Gold Rush. I designed this drink for our current new menu [with] Mr Koo, who designed the menu’s visuals.”

The traditional Gold Rush comprises whiskey, lemon juice and honey syrup, and is considered a modern classic, originating in the 2000s at Milk & Honey in New York City. Wong and the team enhance the template by splitting the base between Michter’s Bourbon and Torres Brandy, then adding Khoosh orange liqueur, Ancho Reyes Verde and agave honey.

However, at The Green Door, the drink begins with cornbread, which is blended into the base spirits. According to Wong, the bar’s cornbread is baked fresh and then sous vide with Hokkaido milk for two hours, followed by milk-washing with spirits to clarify it for batching and mixing. “This process helps extract the cornbread flavour while keeping the palate clean,” Wong adds.