The unique ingredient in Sam Ng’s Sours; Hup San Social Club review; the quiz, and more.

In this issue:

• Drinks Up! — Sam Ng from Puffy Bois shares the unique ingredient in their custom Sours (and a recipe);
• The Two Drink Review: Hup San Social Club;
• The Last Word — More SGCX action, and a second first birthday for a Duxton favourite.

Welcome back to Boothby’s Singapore Briefing, in what is a super busy week for the local bar scene, with takeovers galore taking place for the first Singapore Cocktail Crossover (you can read more about that here.)

I had a great night attending the first SGCX Bar Awards on Monday. Kudos to the team for organising such a positive celebration of Singapore’s bars — it’s an important thing for the community to have these moments of recognition.

This week, I’m talking to Sam Ng of Duxton cocktails and pizza joint, Puffy Bois, about their unique approach to making Sours — it’s a little fun, and if you ask me, a very smart way to do things.

The quiz is back again: which bar is Singapore’s best new opening? Find out below.

The brief Two Drink Review is back as well — this week we’re looking at Hup San Social Club.

And a reminder, you can access all our Singapore and Asia stories at boothby.asia, along with each edition of this email briefing. In the meantime, do give us a follow on Instagram at @boothbydrinks, and send any tips, intel, or feedback to me direct at sam@boothby.com.au. I’d love to hear from you.

Okay, let’s get into it.

Drinks Up! Sam Ng, Puffy Bois

It becomes a bit of a choose-your-own-adventure drink. Do you want it with gin, you want it with vodka? It makes a mean Daiquiri, too.

The Sour is a staple drink for any bar around the world, and today, it is probably more popular than it has ever been before. (Credit to tequila and the Margarita for that one.)

The cocktails within the category of Sour are numerous, but all follow a reasonably similar construction: spirit, citrus, sweetener, assembled in various formulations.

At Puffy Bois in Singapore, owner and bartender Sam Ng has come up with a neat solution to the wild array of Sours out there. “This drink is called the What What,” he says. “This drink is always on our menu. It’s our version of any classic Sour you might traditionally order. It’s a blend of four different citruses, plus we make an oleo with all the spent peels. It’s lemon, lime, pink grapefruit and calamansi — which gives it a bit of oomph.

“It becomes a bit of a choose-your-own-adventure drink. Do you want it with gin, you want it with vodka? It makes a mean Daiquiri, too.” We can vouch for its Daiquiri delivery success. Ng says it also is a great base for the Margarita (of course), the Old Cuban, Tom Collins and the Mojito. “It’s kind of a catch-all, so we don’t have to have different versions of Sours on the menu,” he says.

As for the name of the drink itself? “I just wanted to hear people say, ‘can I get a what what?’” Ng says.

Shochu What What

The drink is essentially a Shochu Sour, made with their in-house four citrus and oleo blend, shochu, and a little apricot liqueur.

Ingredients:

• 40ml Ichiiko Shochu
• 20ml apricot liqueur
• 40ml four citrus and oleo blend
• 2 drops of foamer

Method:

1. Shake all ingredients hard with ice.
2. Strain into a chilled coupe glass.

Bartender-owner June Baek does a lot from Hup San’s small 14 seat space; watching her and fellow bartender, Nelson, assembling drinks behind the bar at Hup San Social Club is like watching bartending in a submarine; their movements are precise and economical, no movement wasted.

And despite the cosy surrounds — a water bath beeps occasionally on the bar; a single group home coffee machine sits on a shelf behind the bar — their ambitions are big; the drinks list features a dozen classics, and an 18-drink strong signature menu.

Start with a Dirty Collins (Gin Mare, olive, sherry, celery, lemon, soda — $26); it’s bright, dry, refreshing, and very cold, with a lick of salinity to it. The Shiso Martini (Patrón Silver, shiso, plum wine, sherry, Dom Benedictine) is an elegant fruit-forward riff, with the tequila in the supporting role along with a light shiso menthol note.

The Gen Z Maicha (Chivas regal crystalgold, genmaicha, malt vinegar, milk washed, fizz, white chocolate — $26) divides people, June says; some people love it, some really don’t. It’s a milk washed drink with a zesty, minerally carbonation, a light vinegar funk, with brushed white chocolate around the rim of the glass softening the drink and adding another layer of flavour. Put me in with the fans who love the drink.

While I’m sat at the bar, the couple next to me talks about English royal houses — Plantagents, Tudors, Stuarts — before swerving into a discussion about Negronis and Paper Plane riffs. And that kind of sums the place up: a small bar doing big ideas, really well, and a bartender-owner making something as well (and often better) than those with bigger bars with bigger budgets. Beautiful stuff.