Morocco is an Islamic country, albeit a relatively liberal one, where alcohol is theoretically 'haram' ('forbidden') to the great majority of the population.
This has somewhat hindered the development of its cocktail culture, so it wasn't in his hometown of Marrakech where Boudel Boudia picked up his bartending skills.
The manager of Kasbah in Arbuthnot Road learned the tricks of the trade in France and Luxembourg, before coming to Hong Kong about 10 years ago to manage the original Kasbah and Medina Lounge in Hollywood Road.
About two years ago, rising rents forced Kasbah further uphill, thus ensuring that any loyal customers who made it that far - on foot at least - would be in urgent need of a drink by the time they got there.
Fortunately, Boudia has just the thing. The Medina Lounge now exists only on the Kasbah website (kasbah.com.hk), but the restaurant continues to serve the list of 10 cocktails and three mocktails he developed for it - plus any customer favourites requested.
There being no distinctively Moroccan national cocktail to make Kasbah's speciality, Boudia decided to settle for recipes stressing his homeland's signature herb: mint.
The biggest sellers from the list, he says, are the mojito - which, given that Cubans also eat mint, does not exactly derive its DNA from the Maghreb - and his own creation, the Marrakech, which actually does have an ancestor in a cocktail he first tasted in the former Moroccan capital. It consisted of vodka and champagne with a sprig of mint, which he reckoned almost, but didn't quite, hit the spot.