Welcome back to another installment of boozings, where we try all of Philly’s Top 15 Drinks! Next up we go to Kong, for the Kowloon Taxi. It is concocted with Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur, Ketel One vodka and cranberry juice, mixed with muddled fresh ginger and orange slices, and served straight up in a martini glass, garnished with stirrer full of candied ginger.
I was actually dreading having to drink this because I’m not the biggest fan of ginger. I like when ginger is used as a flavoring (ginger powder, crushed / minced ginger), but I don’t actually like it being visible in my food. There’s nothing I dread more than biting into a hunk of ginger. The pickled ginger that comes with sushi? I don’t touch the stuff. That’s why I was so surprised to like this drink. Seriously. This ginger-phobe liked this ginger based cocktail! It’s very gingery and spicy, but not in the campfire way that the chile infused drink was. It’s spicy in the gingery way. And incredibly strong as well. As I kept on drinking it, the ginger flavor became less offensive, and I really started to enjoy it. I still did not like it when I actually bit into a hunk of ginger, which thankfully only happened once. And the candied ginger that came on the stirrer, I even took little bites of that and enjoyed it a little bit. But I still can’t see myself ever just eating candied ginger for fun.

I’d never been to Kong before but on this monday night, it was completely deserted, which made me a bit sad. The place is beyond beautiful. I have read mixed reviews about the food, which is probably why the place was so empty, but perhaps the location in Northern Liberties isn’t the best for a place like Kong. If this place was in chinatown, it would probably be packed every night.

Ok, 8 down, 7 more to go!

Welcome back to another installment of boozings, where we try all of Philly’s Top 15 Drinks! Next up we go to APO, for the Midtown Village. It is APO’s version of the manhattan, and is made with rye whiskey, port wine, amaro, italian vermouth, bitters, and orange on fire, served in an ornate martini type of glass. The orange on fire is flames shooting off a twist of orange zest into the drink. When you’re getting table service, this bit of fire display isn’t something you get to see at all.

I had previously said that the oyster house punch tasted like fall. Well, this drink tastes like christmas. And it doesn’t taste good. I love christmas and the holidays and all that jazz, but I don’t want to eat anything that tastes like christmas or drink anything that tastes like christmas. In short, it tastes like port wine infused with a holiday wreath. Kinda gross if you ask me, but that’s just my opinion. There, finally something on the list I don’t like!

Some of the other cocktails we tried were the moroccan something, which was also not that great, and the booty collins. The booty collins was delicious! It was definitely a girley drink that tasted pretty much just like passion fruit juice.

The scarlett kossak was also delicious, but yet again, a girley drink. As if the red strawberry on top didn’t give it away. You get complimentary soft pretzels, which is a plus. But they need to give you some mustard!

Ok, 7 down, only 8 more to go!

Welcome back to another installment of boozings, where we try all of Philly’s Top 15 Drinks! Next up we go to Distrito, for their take on the Hemingway. This version is made with Hornitos tequila that is infused with chile, grapefruit juice, topped with a maraschino, and served in a very wide-mouthed margarita type glass.

Whoa, when they say chile infused, they mean it. I mean, you can definitely taste the smoky spice, and your mouth kind of feels like campfire with every sip. It’s a good drink though, but spicy, so totally bizarre. But I can definitely say I liked this drink. But the spice was probably exacerbated by the fact that right before this drink, I had a giant vat of pho bo kho, which is also a very spicy dish. So having that spicy soup followed by this spicy drink was probably not the best idear. There’s also a lot to drink here, so you’ll have many many campfirey sips. And yeah, it’s strong too, which seems to be the common thread running through all these Top 15 drinks.

Extra props to Distrito for having the most photo-favorable bar counter, ever. With the built-in uplighting and the resined in scorpions, they made it extra easy to capture cool pics. Also, their glassware for standard cocktails is also quite photogenic.

Ok, 6 down, 9 more to go!