How To Slay Your Picnic Cocktail Game This Dragon Boat Festival

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Recently, we shared a couple of blog posts dedicated to picnic essentials for Dads and Moms. The teacher in me felt left out until I realized, there are only three things that are essential to a successful teacher picnic.

• Alcohol

• Oversized sunglasses and floppy hat so students won’t recognize you while drinking said alcohol

• More Alcohol

I already have sunglasses and a hat, but Dragon Boat Festival is coming up and my picnic cocktail game has gone a little stale. So, I sought out an expert. Alfred Yu of Paper Planes Bar, who was kind enough to mix up two simple cocktails for my next outdoor excursion.

The first was a Pear Blossom, a fresh take on a classic gin and tonic. Admittedly, I’m not much of a gin drinker, however, this made me a convert.

• 25ml dry gin

• 10ml pear liquor

• 10ml green tea

• 15ml tonic

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Simply mix the gin, pear liquor, and green tea then pour into a chilled glass. Top with tonic water.

The second was The Urban Forest: a little sweet, a little smoky, and definitely not your mama’s sherry.

• 25ml sherry

• 10ml calvados

• 10ml benedictine

• 15ml osmanthus wine

• 2 dashes of orange bitters

• .05 g dry rice leaves

• .05g dry Osmanthus

Mix everything together in a shaker and pour over ice in a brandy glass. Top with fresh osmanthus leaves.

I loved both of these drinks but the thought of lugging around that many bottles was a bit daunting. I mentioned that to Yu and luckily, I don’t have to! Paper Plane sells their cocktails in individual bottles. Thus, my picnic game has officially been upped.

If you want to check out Paper Planes you can find them on WeChat at PaperPlanes_Beijing and you can order their perfectly balanced cocktails by scanning the QR code below.

Photos: Unsplash, Julie Wolf

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