Everyone's favorite Thai dessert is mango and sticky rice, and now you can have it in a festive cocktail! I came up with this recipe for the live cooking class which I hosted with my Sabai Talk Podcast co-host, chef Hong Thaimee. I wanted to make a Thai flavoured cocktail with a flavour combination that I know would be a guaranteed hit, and this was it. The secret is the clever technique called "rice washing" which makes for an exceptionally smooth cocktail
Want to save this recipe?
We can email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
Ingredients and Notes
Here are all the ingredients you'll need and important notes about them. For amounts, see the the full recipe card below.
- Mango juice. Get the best mango juice you can as the flavour of the cocktail relies heavily on the quality of the juice. It's hard to find pure mango juice, so a blend is fine, as long as it still tastes distinctly of mango. You can also blend mango pieces and make your own juice, more on that below.
- Vodka. I tested this cocktail with various alcohol, including gin, rum, even mezcal! They all actually tasted great, but I decided to stick with the neutral tasting vodka to preserve the flavour profile of mango sticky rice. Other alcohols altered the flavour of the drink too much, but you can certainly experiment.
- Coconut milk. Since this isn't going to be cooked, and it's one of two main flavours of the drink, a good quality coconut milk is important. I use Aroy D brand in UHT paper carton (not can). You can also read my article all about coconut milk to find out how to choose the best one.
- Pandan leaf. Pandan is to Thai dessert what vanilla is to Western desserts. It has a lovely floral aroma that goes very well with coconut milk. Look for it wherever you buy your Thai groceries, and you can use fresh or frozen leaves. If you can't find it, it is fine to omit. If you have pandan extract, you can add it a drop at a time until a scent comes through, but don't overdo it as it can taste chemically when overdone.
- Uncooked white rice. This is optional, but it will help make your cocktail smoother due to the "rice washing" technique (more details below). You can use any kind of white rice since we just need the starch, but I used Thai glutinous rice (sticky rice) because it is the starchiest, and it keeps with the mango-sticky-rice theme :).
- Ice cubes.
How to Make Mango Sticky Rice Cocktail
Here's a bird's eye view of the process. The full instructions are in the recipe card below. Please excuse the low quality images as these are screenshots taken from the live cooking class which I encourage you to watch!
- Grind the pandan leaves with a splash of the vodka until the leaves are bruised and broken down slightly. You can also use a cocktail muddler.
- Add the remaining vodka and stir or swirl to mix.
- Strain the vodka out, discarding the pandan leaves.
- In a shaker, combine the mango juice, pandan vodka, coconut milk, rice and ice cubes and shake until fully chilled. Pour into a serving glass through a strainer. You can serve the cocktail with ice in a rocks glass, or without ice in a martini glass.
What is "rice washing" in cocktail making?
I first learned about this technique from Cook's Illustrated, and basically, shaking the alcohol with raw white rice ends up producing a smoother cocktail! How does it work? The starch that comes out of the raw rice during the shaking (the same stuff that make the water cloudy when you wash rice before cooking) captures some of the volatile compounds in alcohol that gives it the bitterness.
So you can use any kind of rice, but it needs to be white because brown rice contains the bran that keeps the starch enclosed. Oh, and it needs to be uncooked as the starch in cooked rice has all been, well, cooked :).
Before you start, if this is your first time, be sure to watch the video tutorial to ensure success!
Mango Sticky Rice Cocktail
Equipment
- mortar and pestle or cocktail muddler
Ingredients
- 8 inches pandan leaf, cut in 1-inch pieces
- 3 oz good mango juice
- 2 oz vodka, or less if you prefer
- 1 oz coconut milk, see note 1
- 1 Tablespoon raw white rice, see note 2
- Ice cubes
Want to save this recipe?
We can email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
Notes
- I recommend Aroy D brand in the UHT paper carton for best flavour. If not available, Aroy D in cans are fine. Do not use light coconut milk.
- You won’t taste the rice added to the cocktail, but “rice washing” cocktail is a trick to help smooth out the bitterness of the alcohol.
FULL VIDEO TUTORIAL
All my recipes come with step-by-step video tutorials with extra tips not mentioned in the blog post, so make sure you watch the video to ensure success. If you enjoy them, consider subscribing to the YouTube Channel to not miss an episode. Thank you!
Subscribe to my YouTube ChannelInstructions
- *The video tutorial for this recipe is part of a livestream. The mango sticky rice cocktail starts at minute 54:05. In a mortar and pestle, add the pandan leaf pieces and a small splash of vodka and grind in a circular motion to bruise and breakdown the leaves. Add the remaining vodka and give it a quick grind, then strain it into a mixing glass or cocktail shaker.8 inches pandan leaf, 2 oz vodka
- Add the mango juice, coconut milk, rice and ice cubes. Shake or stir vigorously until well chilled, and strain through a fine mesh strainer into a chilled serving martini glass or a rocks glass filled with ice. Garnish with a pandan leaf tip, if desired, cheers!3 oz good mango juice, 1 oz coconut milk, 1 Tablespoon raw white rice, Ice cubes
Leave a Reply