Hong Kong Drink 🔞: Kwong Yu Yee Old Wine Shop Yuk Bing Siu (广如意老酒庄.玉冰烧) @ Sham Shui Po

Kwong Yu Yee Old Wine Shop (广如意老酒庄) sells a wide range of wines, spirits and liquors that include traditional rice wine, Chinese liquors and imported liquors, especially whisky and brandy. The old wine shop is located at the road intersection between Pei Ho Street (北河街) and Yee Kuk Street (医局街) in Sham Shui Po.

Among bottles of alcohol that lined the shelves is one particular rice wine that stirs the interests of travellers in-the-know — Kwong Yu Yee's self-brewed yuk bing siu (玉冰烧). The old wine shop is said to be the last distillery that still make the once-popular Hong Kong-specialty wine.

Yuk bing siu used to be called "肉冰烧", due to the use of meat (肉) in the brewing process, but the name does not sound elegant and later changed to "玉冰烧", since "肉" and "玉" have similar pronunciations in Cantonese. The new name is also more elegant as "玉" meant "jade" or "precious stone". "冰" means "ice" which describes the cool sensation when sipping the wine. "烧" means "spirit".

The traditional yuk bing siu is brewed by macerating large chunk of pork belly fats in the rice wine during the fermentation process, where the fats dissolved slowly in the wine, imparting rich flavours to the wine. The finished wine, with undissolved fats removed, is kept in a ceramic urn that sits inside a cupboard in the old wine shop and is usually filled into bottles on orders.

The yuk bing siu (玉冰烧) is clear and transparent and has a light, unique fragrance. Despite having nearly 30% alcohol, it has a mellow, cushioned taste and no sharp sensation on first sip, but a spicy note follows. There is no strong smell and taste of pork belly fat despite it being macerated in the wine. The traditional rice wine indeed has a nice fragrance — but the alcohol content is a little high for me.

The rice wine is usually sold in multiples of 500-millilitres in bottles prepared by Kwong Yu Yee. For customers who want smaller quantities just to try the flavours, either try a small cup in the shop or bring along a smaller bottle to take-away the wine.

Address:

34 Pei Ho Street, Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong

Opening Hours:

8am to 11pm | Daily

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