Plea for help: Lychee Martini

A month or so ago, Janet and I met at the Shanghai Restaurant on Somerset Street for one of their dangerously delicious world-famous Lychee martinis.

“We should ask them for the recipe,” Janet said.

“Absolutely,” I agreed. And then we both forgot.

Since then, I’ve been trying to re-create the Lychee Martini. For some reason – maybe it actually said so on the menu – I believe they used vanilla vodka. So I combined some vanilla vodka with some Soho lychee liqueur, tossed it in the cocktail shaker with ice, shook like crazy, and poured it into a martini glass. It was okay, but it didn’t compare to the Shanghai’s Lychee Martini.

The Shanghai’s dangerously delicious Lychee Martini doesn’t taste like booze – it tastes kind of like pear nectar.

I did a little research and discovered it’s advisable to use lychee syrup rather than lychee liqueur, so I went to five different specialty shops and large grocery stores looking for lychee syrup, but I couldn’t find any. Just raspberry syrup and strawberry syrup.

Tonight I tried again. Vanilla vodka, lychee liqueur, a couple of ounces of diet ginger ale (to cut the boozy taste), ice, all tossed into the cocktail shaker and shaken, into the martini glass, and garnished with a cherry. It was good – and pretty in a simple sort of way – but it still didn’t compare to the Shanghai’s dangerously delicious lychee martini. It was still too boozy-tasting.

So tonight I’m sending out a plea for help: I’m asking you to please give me some ideas for creating a dangerously delicious Lychee Martini.

(And while you’re at it, if you’re so inclined, many years ago I invented the NAME of a drink: the Tequila Mockingbird. I asked the bartenders at Irene’s Pub to invent the drink for me. They worked tirelessly for days – and the regulars drank and judged tirelessly for days – but we never came up with a satisfactory Tequila Mockingbird.)