My daughter was waiting tables at a fine dining restaurant owned by a Vietnamese chef. His food was sophisticated but the bar drinks were, she thought, embarrassing: lemon drops and appletinis and cosmos. The owner challenged her to come up with a better drink and if they liked it, they would put it on the menu. And so my daughter challenged me to come up with a recipe. I think this drink has intriguing, exotic Asian flavors, is very light and not too sweet. It seems like it might be a bit of a "girly" drink, but my macho martini and bourbon drinking husband is crazy about it. It's very important to use coconut palm sugar for the simple syrup--it won't have the right flavor if other types of sugar are used. Most natural foods stores now sell coconut palm sugar aka jaggery. It can also be found in Asian and Indian grocery stores.

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