Lunar New Year is all about family gatherings, exchanging pleasantries and stuffing your face full with seasonal snacks. And exchanging mandarin oranges too. Despite being the fruit and icon of the festival, mandarin oranges are often relegated to a formality – one to be traded with relatives and left to pile up in the fruit basket.  

The distillers at Tanglin are giving the spotlight back to this humble citrus – making it the backbone of their new Triple Tangerine Liqueur. Distilled with regional citrus fruit favouites such as calamansi and kaffir lime, this orange-based liqueur is an Asian rendition on the ubiquitous Cointreau. 

This liqueur is the outcome of Tanglin’s ambitious quest to make a true-blue Singaporean Sling – consisting of liqueurs and spirits entirely from the little red dot. The Singapore Sling was concocted at the Raffles Hotel in 1915 by Ngiam Tong Boom, and consists of: gin, cherry brandy, Cointreau, Benedictine DOM, grenadine, pineapple and lime juice, and finished off with a dash of Angostura Bitters. That’s a lot of ingredients for one cocktail!

Nevertheless, to usher in the new Rabbit Year, me and my mates got our hands on Tanglin's Triple Tangerine liqueur.

Tanglin's Triple Tangerine Mandarin Orange Liqueur, 38% ABV - Review

Nose: Right off the bat, you get that zesty fragrance of mandarin orange peels. Think of that oily-watery substance that spritzes out of the peel and gets all over the table – that fiery limonene smell. Let the liqueur sit in a glass, and you get a background grassy note akin to bruised kaffir lime leaves or freshly plucked Thai basil.

Taste: The liqueur starts off spicy, like biting into a fresh tangerine peel or a raw chili. After the initial burn, it tastes like the white pith of a mandarin orange, before developing to a juicy, sweet honey ponkan (蜜糖椪柑) flavour.

Finish: The finish is rather short lived, leaving the sticky sweetness you expect from marmalade. As the mandarin orange flavour tapers away, it gives way to confectionery sugar sweetness the more it sits on the palate.

My Thoughts

Rating: 🍊🥠🌶️

It really is a liqueur fit for the occasion – there is an unmistakable mandarin orange punch to this spirit. Compared to a traditional Cointreau, I feel that there is more volatility and spice in this rendition. I recommend chasing this with soda water, lots of ice, a squeeze of kumquat juice and garnished with a sprig of tropical herbs of choice (mine was Thai basil). For the bold and the brave, sliced raw chili may be the garnish instead to add more oompf.

Lunar new year is almost over but let's ride on the high from the festivities by making a LNY-themed drink at home with a boozy twist! 

The last we checked, this bottle is still available for purchase on Tanglin Gin's website. If this seems like your thing, check it out on their shop!

Click here to learn all about the craft gin distillery that put Singapore on the gin world map: Tanglin Distillery

@vernoncelli