The new season calls for new creations, and Rosewood Hong Kong’s renowned flagship bar, DarkSide, recently released the new edition of their conceptual menu series. Spotlighting the Chinese tile-based game mahjong, the menu showcases the craftsmanship and artistry of hand-drawn mahjong tiles and interprets the game’s elements to the new cocktail experience.
‘The Art of Mahjong’ menu replaces their high-concept Moon menu that features eight cocktails inspired by the phases of the moon. This year, the menu presents their offerings in a black box that opens like a mahjong table, complete with dice and mahjong tiles with symbols designed by mahjong tile-makers Ricky Cheung and Karen Aruba. DarkSide also printed limited-run mahjong playing cards to give to their VIPs and special patrons. To continue Rosewood Hong Kong’s ‘A Sense of Place’ guiding philosophy that supports and spotlights local talents and businesses, DarkSide commissioned local glass-blowing artisan Soekjing Studio and Tung Yao Ceramics, a long-standing local brand renowned for developing Chinese pottery, to design the handcrafted glassware and ceramics used in serving the drinks.
Click on the video below for a preview of the mahjong menu:
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The eight cocktails ($180/cocktail) are grouped into the mahjong’s flower and season tiles which feature the Four Gentlemen, a collective term referring to the four plants – plum blossom, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum – that represent highly prized virtues in Chinese culture; and the seasons that represents flavour notes from spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Guests can order the drinks based on their preferred ingredients from the Four Gentlemen or their favourite seasons, but if you’re unsure, you can just roll the dice and let the mahjong box choose the drink for you.
We recommend starting with the refreshing highball inspired by salty lime soda, Summer – served in an elegant hand-blown glass made with Japanese Nikka Days Whiskey, salted lychee, and Hong Kong Amaro that is made using locally grown herbs, garnished with fresh salted lychee – before moving to the creamy Winter – a penicillin riff made with Chinese sweet potato, ginger, and Matusalem Gran Reserva 15 Years Rum garnished with chewy sweet potato candy. To open your palate, go for the Orchid, a contemporary version of Margarita using tequila and mezcal with spring onion and dendrobium orchid flavours served in a handcrafted ceramic bowl with engraved orchid patterns. For a spirit-forward sip, go for the Old Fashioned twist, Bamboo, made with whisky with flavours of taxillus (a small evergreen shrub) and bamboo-distilled sake, served in stackable bamboo ceramic, garnished with a homemade nugget candy (made with Yomogi powder and marshmallow) that you bite into before tasting the drink. Our favourite from the menu is the bold and savoury martini twist called Plum which uses vodka, tomato consommé, and calendula cordial and salted plum – very easy to drink but packs quite a punch.
DarkSide is also mixing some new sustainable drinks, which include homemade liqueur using upcycled ingredients leftover from Rosewood’s bar and kitchen. In collaboration with ecoSPIRITS, a company that pioneers an innovative closed-loop distribution system for spirits, each drink you order from the sustainable menu helps plant a tree in Asia. Click here to see how many trees are already planted with the help of Rosewood Hong Kong.
For more information, visit darkside.hk.
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