Life.Culture.Discovery.

The best boat party drinks: stop buying from 7-Eleven for your junk trip – make your own simple cocktails instead

For many, summer in Hong Kong means two things – junk boat trips and drinking on junk boats – and 7-Eleven is often the convenience store of choice for tipples

Boat drinks can be so much better and classier than that – buy ready-to-drink cocktails in cans or make your own, and bring nice glasses to put it in

Reading Time:3 minutes

Drinks from 7-Eleven are standard junk boat fare, but you can make your on-board bar so much better with home-made drinks. Anyone fancy a Lazy Boat Paloma? Photo: Victoria Chow

Published: 5:15pm, 19 Aug 2022Updated: 5:34pm, 19 Aug 2022

It’s summer in Hong Kong – aka typhoon season, aka boat season, aka boat-trips-postponed-by-typhoon season.

There are two drinks-related rookie mistakes people make when it comes to boat trips. No. 1 is being hungover from the night before and showing up (if at all) exuding pitiable vibes. No. 2 is making a last-minute dash to the nearest 7-Eleven, not only holding up the boat departure but inevitably setting the on-board bar up for mediocrity.

I’m not here to judge the bottles of Absolut and Oyster Bays (though I am). I’m here to say, with just a little bit of thought and effort, boat drinks can be so much better than that low bar.

Let’s start with a few simple principles for brilliant boat cocktails: they should be light-bodied (carbonation of some sort really helps); cold (don’t forget to ask if ice is provided and, more importantly, if it’s drink grade rather than destined for the cooler); batchable or simple (you’ll want to do minimal preparation work on a rocky boat with a tiny excuse for a kitchen; if there are more than three ingredients, mix at home and bring the jug); and low in alcohol (the secret to successful day-drinking in the sun).

Summer in Hong Kong means one thing for many people – junk boat parties. Photo: SCMP

My go-to cocktails for the occasion are a Paloma and vermouth and soda.