Drink of the Week: Tennessee Electric Tea

Where: Ping Pong Dim Sum

Ma la fans out there will be familiar with the spicy, tongue-numbing sensations produced by the Sichuanese peppercorns in their hot pots and plates of ma po tofu. Usually dried and perhaps ground up or infused into a flavorful oil, the pepper doesn’t burn as much as it produces a pins-and-needles tingle on your tongue. If you’ve eaten spicy Sichuan cuisine, you know that even a cup of plain water tastes like an over-carbonated can of Sprite after a bite of the peppercorn.

Tennessee Electric Tea, a new cocktail on Ping Pong Dim Sum’s summer drink menu, is quite literally a ‘buzz’-worthy beverage. The tea is a fairly straightforward mix of whiskey, Coke, and lemon. The twist is the utilization of a fresh, green Sichuan peppercorn bud sitting atop the drink’s straw. It’s the dot of an upside-down exclamation point with a punch. The bud is meant to bitten off from the straw and chewed before sipping up the Jack and Coke below. Drinking the cocktail is akin to downing a Long Island Iced Tea with an angry bumblebee swimming in it.

I had never encountered the peppercorn in it’s fresh form before. Ma po tofu, which can be found at Great Wal Szechuan House on 14th Street NW, the Sichuan Pavillion downtown, or Hong Kong Palace in Falls Church, among other true Sichuan restaurants, can be a revelation. The peppercorns are like nothing else. Fresh peppercorn, in a cocktail no less, earns even more points for uniqueness.

Small Bites

Dreams of Coyacan
This week Oyamel features a special menu to celebrate the birthday of Frida Kahlo, the famous Mexican painter. Oyamel says that their dishes, like a shrimp broth soup with tomatoes, onions, and gulf prawns and a pork chop with a pumpkin seed pipian sauce are inspired by the artist’s “generous spirit.” The dishes range from $4 to $12 and are available through July 13.

Summer Cocktails For Bloggers (Not Yelpers)
Black Jack has released a summer cocktail menu of their own, with $12 drinks with names like Sassafras, Maple Derby, Bramble and Thorn, and the Peep Show. Drinks feature high-end liquors, mixers like housemade blackberry soda or seasonal tonics, all sorts of bitters, and other stuff you aren’t sure of and will need to ask the bartender about like Clear Creek Kirchwasser. Two frozen options, like the Cobbler with rye whiskey, apricot liqueur, peach, mint, and honey are available for those extra scorching early evenings. Just watch what you Yelp about the service.

A Jolly Good Pint
There’s another jewel in the Hilton Brothers’ crown: they opened the Brixton, their three-level British-style pub, replete with the requisite D.C.-style roof deck, this past weekend on 9th and U Streets NW.