Guardian: “Thailand launches national cocktail to lure tourists”
When tourism has taken a self-inflicted battering, the temptation might be to have a drink to drown your sorrows.
Thailand is going a step further: it has invented a new national cocktail, which it hopes will help visitors forget the hangover from the disastrous airport shutdowns late last year.
Intended as an answer to Singapore’s slings, Cuba’s mojitos and the many manhattans downed in New York, the Siam sunray is intended to give tourists an instant taste of Thailand’s charms.
At the very least the drink’s ingredients are far from bland: a shot of vodka, coconut liqueur, a dash of chilli pepper and sugar, lime juice, a few slivers of lemongrass and ginger, with the whole mixture shaken then strained into a glass with ice and soda water.
Thailand’s tourism authority formally rolled out the drink yesterday, grandly styling the concoction “Thailand in a glass: the new punch in Thai tourism.”
And here’s the official release from the Tourism Authority of Thailand: “SIAM SUNRAYS – THAILAND IN A GLASS“:
Siam Sunrays — Thailand’s new signature drink, is based on the very Thai ingredients that have made Tom Yam soup world renowned: freshly-picked lemon grass, Kaffir lime leaves, Thai lime and Thai bird chilli (phrik kee nuu). All these play a key part in the unique culinary experience Thailand has to offer, and leave the first-time visitor with a very distinct and long-lasting impression.
(I guess Siam Sunrays beat the “coup cocktails” served during the fall of 2006.)