Dining/Drinking

Aficionados, get set for a story-infused cocktail adventure! Happy Hour Asia is delighted to steer your attention towards Bar Trigona, currently ranked 12th in the Asia’s 50 Best Bars list (2021) and a creation by the relatively new Four Seasons Hotel Kuala Lumpur.

It now also ranks in Top 5 for Best Cocktail Menu Award. The recognition comes from The World’s 50 Best Bars 2021. The inaugural Siete Misterios Best Cocktail Menu Award has ranked Bar Trigona’s “Herb Garden in Your Glass” menu among the top five contenders.

Based on an assessment of 190 bars across 43 countries, this prestigious title celebrates the brilliance of an individual bar’s cocktail menu, evaluating aspects such as storytelling, innovation and sustainability. Bar Trigona’s menu puts the spotlight on Malaysian herbs used in kitchens across the country.

“We promise to continue redefining luxury beverages by showcasing the best of Malaysian farms, gardens and forests,” says Assistant Bar Manager Julian Benjamin.

Malaysian herbs

Herb Garden in Your Glass: Paying homage to homegrown herbs, this storied menu is woven around four Malaysian staples – pandan (screwpine), pegaga (Asiatic pennywort), bunga kantan (torch ginger), and lemongrass. Featured in culinary recipes and healing concoctions for centuries, these herbs are now used by the Bar Trigona team in myriad ways to extract their full range of flavours and textures.

Guests can sample signature creations such as ‘Serenity’, an intense blend of aged and dark rums with candlenut osmanthus orgeat and lemongrass falernum, and ‘Honey Bloom’, a refreshing medley of white rum and bunga kantan honey with elements such as citrus, elderflower and ginger. ‘In Black & Gold’, taste blended scotch and prosecco elevated by pandan cordial and epsuma.

The honey ingredient is key, as the astonishing bar draws ongoing inspiration from its namesake – the trigona honeybee. The trigona bee is a species of stingless bee native to the tropical regions of Southeast Asia. It’s a rare scavenger species indigenous to subtropical regions. As a smaller stingless variety, it is perfectly suited to being farmed; especially with colonies of upwards of 5,000 workers at any one time.

This bee not only serves as inspiration for the bar’s glittering hive-style interiors but also as a key ingredient for its own unique trigona honey cocktail concept. The ever-updating menu and cocktail list comes with an emphasis on local and sustainable ingredients, where the sweet and sour honey produced by these stingless bees infuses trademark cocktails with an inimitable flavour.

The taste profile of the honey is due to the bee’s preference for coconut, pineapple, mango and even tamarind on its travels. This much sought-after honey infuses trademark cocktails with an inimitable flavour. The hand-crafter cocktails on the menu are listed under the categories ‘Fruit’, ‘Leaf & Flower’, ‘Stem & Seed’ and ‘Root’.

Honey cocktails

From the menu:
Fruit: ‘Passiflora’ (dark rum, cachaca, passionfruit, banana, grenadine, campari, lemon), ‘Forbidden’ Fruit (tequila, fermented grapefruit, lemon, trigona honey, grapefruit soda)
Leaf & Flower: ‘The Green Hornet’ (gin, elderflower, trigona honey, torch ginger cordial lime, grapefruit tonic), ‘Ficus’ (bourbon, amaro, fig jam, trigona honey, lemon, sugar, fig tea)
Stem & Seed:‘Husk’ (mezcal, cacao, sweet vermouth, amaro, trigona honey, cherry tobacco bitters)
Root: ‘Terra’ (botanical gin, lemon & turmeric, bianco vermouth, dry orange curacao), ‘Trigona Old Fashioned’ (rye whiskey, cynar, trigona honey, cedarwood bitters).

Guests can experience the diversity of honey with a tasting flight, featuring three versions of the same cocktail made with different varieties of honey.

The team sources its artisanal honey from a farm in Negeri Sembilan, a collaboration that has flowered into a hive of eco-friendly initiatives over time, including the popular Adopt a Beehive programme.

“For us, a big part of sustainability means working with local communities,” explains Julian, noting that their hyperlocal approach is founded on long-standing partnerships with Malaysian farmers.

As a previous winner of the Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award, Bar Trigona is a pioneer in sustainable cocktail-making. “We have to look at the entire lifecycle of ingredients. What can we reuse, recycle, repurpose? We are passionate about exploring different ways to protect our planet,” says Julian.

Stylish yet authentic, Bar Trigona embodies the true art of personalisation – from tailored cocktails to personalised service. “Everyone who walks through our doors is met with a warm welcome and treated with genuine care. That’s who we are,” says Julian.

Life Cycle of a Fruit

In this coveted bar the ever-updating cocktail list also focuses on the use of seasonal Malaysian fruits, herbs and spices, sourced straight from local farms. The ‘Life Cycle of a Fruit’ (new menu June 2020), reimagines the ways in which popular Malaysian fruits are utilised.

“Nearly one-third of perfectly edible fruit ends up being discarded because of its appearance,” explains Head Bartender Ashish Sharma, whose distinctive brand of mixology marries innovation with purpose. “We want to minimise wastage by redefining the aesthetics of fruit.”

“Everything in nature is closely connected, so we’re trying to activate as many elements as possible,” says Ashish. “Our hive adoption program helps to preserve bee habitats and natural beekeeping methods. With Life Cycle of a Fruit, we’re working with more local fruit cultivators, who depend heavily on pollinators like honeybees. Plus, we continue to support indigenous products like Mutiara figs and chocolate from Chocolate Concierge.”

Paying homage to homegrown produce, Life Cycle of a Fruit embraces the rich and varied avatars of fruits sourced from local farmers. Each cocktail tells a flavourful story, from tales of jackfruit and watermelon to mythologies of mango and mandarin orange. Savour novel concoctions like the Mandarin Way, a blend of homemade spiced vermouth, gin, gula melaka and mandarin citric acid, or discover old favourites recast in new form, such as the Mango Negroni crafted with mango-distilled gin, Campari and Aperol.

The award-winning mixology team experiment with ways to extract the unique flavours of fruit along its entire lifecycle – from “fresh” to “overripe.” Techniques like fermentation, distillation and infusion are used to draw out the fruit’s true essence: taste, colour, fragrance, texture and nutrition. A skin-to-seed approach is also adopted; ensuring that each component of the ingredient comes into play, either in cocktails or for other culinary purposes.

The food menu is also appealing, where these are some of the picks: Artisan Cheese Board – Chef ’s selection of cheeses, honey, fried fruits, fig jam, crackers; 1/2 Dozen Oysters on Ice; Chili Crab Rillettes – Crabmeat, chili sauce, salted crab roe, fried Mantou Bun; Prawn in a Sarong: Marinated prawns, crispy Kataifi Phyllo, micro basil, green mango sauce.

Last but not least: have ‘Your Cocktail, Your Way!’ Bar Trigona delivers a highly personalised drinking experience, making it a favourite among cocktail connoisseurs around the globe. With a genuine passion for conversing with guests and discerning their unique preferences, the bartending team takes great pride in mixing up customised cocktails, featuring distinctive flavour profiles and signature Malaysian ingredients.

Stay tuned for more from Bar Trigona with Happy Hour Asia!