Booze News: Hot & Spicy Drinks to Douse the Flames, Wine Happy Hours, and a 'Cocktail' Night

Thirsty? Wet your whistle with Booze News, our wrap-up of the week's best bar deals, parties, drink concoctions, industry gossip, and more.

Cool your tastebuds off with these Hot & Spicy Festival drinks vendors

If you haven't heard, this weekend finally marks the return of our Hot & Spicy Festival. We're in good stead to welcome Beijing's finest spicy food vendors to Galaxy Soho for three straight days, Friday through Sunday, giving you good people a little taste of life as it used to be in simpler times. However, no one in their right mind – even in a post-coronavirus world – would want to feast on endless chilies, which is why we've also summoned the likes of Brooklyn Lager, Urbrew, Ping Dynasty, Jingye Erguotou, Gold Kylin and Brasserie Du Mont Blanc beer to supply alcohol at the event and give your tastebuds some much-needed respite in between rounds of fire. If you'd like to double up on the spice, however, there'll also be special chili-laden drinks dotted about so you can reach your capsaicin-fuelled hallucinatory potential. The festival runs until 9pm on Friday and 8pm on Saturday and Sunday, making it the perfect excuse to pregame before you head into the night. Don't miss out by grabbing your tickets ahead of time here and whet your appetite with details on just a handful of the vendors here.

Nugget Records specials and Cocktail night

The fine people over at the new cassette store/bar/live performance space Nugget have released a new range of daily deals, including RMB 10 off beers and ciders on Wednesdays, RMB 30 highballs on Wednesdays, as well as half-price on vegan desserts with purchase of any drink on Sundays. Then to really get you in the mood, on Saturday they'll be showing Tom Cruise's beyond smarmy 1988 film Cocktail, which critics have lauded as "a shallow, dramatically inert romance that squanders Tom Cruise's talents in what amounts to a naive barkeep's banal fantasy." Ouch. Rated a whoppingly bad 7 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, you'll need a drink or two, or three, or four to get through it, but what's better than a bit of collective groaning to let off some steam? The showing starts at 8pm and is free.

Ladies' night returns to Beersmith

After having to cut back on their regular promotions during coronavirus, Beersmith has announced that their insanely popular Wednesday ladies' night has returned. Why is it so popular, you ask? Well, with all beers, ciders, and hard seltzers absolutely free for ladies between 10pm and 1am, you start to get an idea. Meanwhile, D'Jack will be spinning a mixture of old school funk, hip-hop, R&B, and afrobeat to keep things moving.

New wine happy hour at Bottega

Bottega Xinyuanli wants to tempt you to start the week off strong with the relaunching of their wine-focussed happy hour. Between Sunday and Thursday, 3-7pm, you will receive 20 percent off any bottle of wine, including all red, white, and sparkling wines.

15 percent off all Spanish wine at Baker and Spice

If it's Spanish wines you're looking for specifically, Baker and Spice have just the deal for you: 15 percent of all Spanish bottles for the remainder of August. The promotion is available at all Baker and Spice locations as well as affiliated Lokal Hubindao stores. Find out more here.

New happy hour at Aurora

DJ Pancake Lee's Aurora club on what used to be the venerable Dirty Bar Street in Sanlitun (RIP) has just launched a new happy hour to get the party started early. Now every Friday to Saturday, 4-6pm, and Sunday to Thursday, 4-8pm, a selection of wines, beers, mixed drinks, cocktails, and soft drinks are buy one get one free. More on that here as well as details on their big two-room party this Friday, kicking off at 10.30pm.

READ: Go South of the Rio Grande at Hot & Spicy Festival 2020

Images: Expansion, Uni You, Pinterest, courtesy of the venues, Kelsey Knight (via Unsplash)