Baijiu for Beginners: The 3 Best Baijiu Cocktail Recipes
Walk down one flight of stairs to enter Ye’s Apothecary—a Szechuan-inspired cocktail bar located on the border between Chinatown and Manhattan’s Lower East Side—and it feels like you’ve stepped into a Wong Kar-Wai film. Tasseled lamps hang like lanterns from the ceiling, and wooden drawers are stacked to the roof behind the bar, evoking the inside of a Chinese pharmacy. There is also an intoxicating scent in the air of something herbal and intense. This is baijiu (pronounced bye-joe), a liquor with thousands of years of history. And here at Ye’s, they’re mixing it up in potent and delicious combinations. I grab a seat and ask for my favorite cocktail, the Fallen Angel, which also happens to be the most popular drink on the menu. Beverage director Jake Babich created it with flavors that complement the flavor profile of Ming River baijiu, using green-tea gin, lemon juice, and peach liqueur. It’s bittersweet and tropical, with a tangy aftertaste.
You may not have heard of baijiu, but it’s the most widely drunk spirit in the world. It’s a colorless yet intensely aromatic liquor, mostly made from sorghum, that hails from China. Baijiu has a reputation for being funky and pungent. But it’s actually a diverse drink that defies generalities. According to Derek Sandhaus, the author of Baijiu: The Essential Guide to Chinese Spirits, it has “been in the making for 9,000 years. And the varieties of baijiu are as distinguished from each other as the different spirits of Europe.”
To give you an idea: There’s a light-aroma version that’s popular in Northern China, and another style that tastes similar to soy sauce. One style distilled from rice is comparable to sake. Then there’s Szechuan Province’s strong-aroma baijiu, the most popular of them all.
Traditionally, Chinese people serve the liquor neat at room temperature, toast one another with blessings, and shoot it. But amid the Western world’s craft-cocktail boom, baijiu is getting incorporated into exciting new concoctions at the most innovative bars. It's unclear how Trump's tariffs will affect the availability of baiijiu—if it does at all—so don't waste time in trying the liquor. You won't regret it. At Red Sorghum in Long Island City, Queens, beverage director Kevin Xue goes hard with the formula for Absinthe Minded, tossing baijiu in with absinthe and rum for a knockout flavor explosion. Back in Chinatown, Peachy’s nightclub is serving a cocktail that’s reminiscent of Thai iced tea. There’s no end to where you can take baijiu so give it a shot—or take one.
THREE WAYS TO MIX YOUR BAIJIUWe asked two top NYC bartenders for their best cocktail recipes—and added one of our own.
The Fallen Angel was created by Jake Babich
Refreshing, unexpected, yet totally balanced. This cocktail brings out the best notes in baijiu and pairs it with your favorite Eastern flavors.
Ingredients• 3/4 oz lemon juice• 1/2 oz sweet vermouth• 1 oz Campari• 1 oz Guilder’s green-tea gin• 1/2 oz Ming River baijiu• 1/4 oz Marie Brizard peach liqueur
Directions
Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until well mixed and chilled. Strain into a tumbler glass.
Negronis are meant to be enjoyed any way you like, and we like ours with rose infused baijiu.
Ingredients• 1/2 oz Ming River baijiu• 1/4 oz Mei Kuei Lu Chiew (rose-infused baijiu)• 1/4 oz Espadín mezcal• 1 oz Campari• 1 oz sweet vermouth
DirectionsStir all ingredients together in a cocktail shaker. Strain over a big block of ice. Garnish with an expressed orange peel.
Nothing goes down easier than a sex on the beach, and the tropical top notes of baijiu blend in seamlessly with this iconic cocktail.
Ingredients• 1 oz baijiu• 1 oz Jamaican rum• 1 oz pineapple juice• 1/2 oz Chinola mango liqueur• 1/2 oz cranberry juice• 1/2 oz lime juice• Amaro floater
DirectionsPour all ingredients except the floater into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until integrated and strain into a glass. Pour a tablespoon of amaro on top.
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