It was the summer of 2008, and I was working my second internship while living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. A lot of my friends also lived in the neighborhood, so on Monday nights, we had the tradition of going to Sea Thai for dinner, a restaurant that’s amazingly still in business. I can’t remember if the happy hour we frequented was specific to Mondays or not, but we ate like kings on 21-year-old, just-moved-to-NYC budgets, and those meals always included a couple rounds of Lychee Martinis.

By this time, I had grown out of my vanilla vodka and Diet Coke phase from college, but a can of PBR garnished with a Parliament was the norm. I enjoyed fancy cocktails, sure, but a trip to Milk & Honey or Employees Only was a rare splurge. So those weekly Lychee Martinis really cemented my love for a drink served up, in a fancy glass, with a garnish to nibble between sips.

While a Lychee Martini can be perfectly balanced (and I assure you Sea’s version certainly was in those days), I now tend to order drinks with less sugar because that’s what my tastebuds want. But during the past year, I’ve noticed my old pal the Lychee Martini popping up on all sorts of drink menus. For industry folks who also experienced their rise to popularity in the early aughts, it’s a nostalgic nod they can tailor to their bar and restaurant concepts.

“My first Lychee Martini was at BondST, of course!” says Marc Spitzer, the executive chef and owner of Okaru. In the Lychee Martini’s earlier heyday, most could be found at Asian restaurants, whether they had developed cocktail programs like BondST or simply wanted to offer a few crowd-pleasing drinks alongside more traditional beverages (I remember having one in 2010 at Congee Village while waiting for a table).

“It was probably in the early 2000s when this cocktail became a staple in almost any Asian restaurant,” says Edwin Hwu, the general manager at Grandma’s Home, when I ask him about his first time trying the drink. “Lychee fruit is an Asian ingredient that is approachable and appealing to most people.”

At its simplest, the Lychee Martini is made with vodka and lychee juice or syrup, maybe with some added dry vermouth or lime juice. But modern bartenders are having a lot of fun with the cocktail, adding additional Asian ingredients and other flavors that help to enhance the lychee.

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“For the base spirit, I’ve swapped vodka for Empirical Soka, a sorghum-based spirit that gives it a richer flavor,” says Greg Kong, beverage director at Nomad Tea Parlour. “There’s also a small measure of baijiu (a Chinese sorghum-based spirit) in there to lend added complexity. Additionally, there’s some grapefruit and strawberry to play on those subtle notes that already exist in the lychee.”

At Grandma’s Home, Hwu looked to Japan to make the classic his own. “Sake is a good pairing with lychee,” he says. “We use lychee sake and combine with nigori (cloudy) sake to add texture. Citrus also accents the aromas, so we added pamplemousse to give it a little more complexity.”

While a lot of lychee juice typically comes from the can, Okaru uses house-made puree in its Lychee Martini, in addition to a few unique, complementary ingredients. “We incorporate fresh Tahitian vanilla bean and lavender,” Spitzer says. “Infusing these flavors into the freshly-made lychee puree brings it to the next level. Most of the raw sashimi dishes play well with the Lychee Martini — the balance of sweetness with the vodka plays well with clean, refreshing dishes.”

The Egg cocktail from Coqodaq

Mariana Osorio

The Lychee Martini is experiencing such a resurgence that its flagship ingredient is even making its way into non-Martini-style drinks. At Coqodaq, The Egg cocktail is as much a symbol of the restaurant as its signature buckets of fried chicken. Made with vodka, jasmine liqueur, St-Germain, verjus and club soda, it’s served in a rocks glass with an egg-shaped ice cube. The ice contains lychee juice that slowly melts into the drink.

“For me, The Egg is a hybrid of a Lychee Martini and vodka soda,” says Coqodaq Director of Bars Sondre Kasin. “It is super light and refreshing and much more crushable than your traditional Lychee Martini. If you typically find the Lychee Martini to be heavy on flavors, this is a better option!”

While you likely don’t have the proper freezing technology to make The Egg, here are a few Lychee Martini variations you can mix up at home.

West Lake Potion From Grandma's Home

Servings: 1

Ingredients

1.5 oz. Hana Lychee Sake
1 oz. Takara Shochu
.75 oz. nigori sake
.5 oz. Giffard Crème de Pamplemousse
.25 oz. lime juice
Brandied cherry, for garnish

Directions

1. Combine the shochu, sake, lychee, pamplemousse and lime juice in a tin. Add ice and shake. Strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with a brandied cherry on a skewer.

Just a Lychee Martini From Nomad Tea Parlour

Servings: 1

Ingredients

1 750ml bottle of Empirical Soka
10 grams white peony tea
.5 oz. rich simple syrup
.25 oz. grapefruit juice
.5 oz. lemon juice
.25 oz. Ming River Baijiu
.25 oz. Giffard Crème de Fraise des bois
.75 oz. Giffard Lichi-Li
1 oz. white peony-infused Empirical Soka
Grapefruit peel, for garnish

Directions

For the white peony-infused Empirical Soka:
1. Add 10 grams of white peony tea into 1 bottle of Empirical Soka for 6 hours. Fine strain through a coffee filter and store at room temperature.
For the cocktail:
1. Add all liquid ingredients into a shaker tin with ice. Close tins and shake hard for 30 to 40 seconds. Fine strain into a 7-ounce coupe. Garnish by expressing grapefruit oil over top of cocktail.