Header image: Stockton’s Anchor Man
Part of the experience of a beautiful, moody drinkery is having a brand-new intoxicant introduced to the taste buds that sings of complementary flavours, quality ingredients and innovative techniques brought together for a sumptuous sipping diversion. We find our minds wandering towards the evening hours in anticipation of our next great cocktail adventure. Here are a few we’d like to explore with a heady crew of fellow cocktail lovers.
Storytime at Stockton
This den of iniquity won Best New Bar at the 2014 Foodie Forks awards for its hidden depths and dark leather furnishings as well as the tasty tipples with thoughtful backstories that inspired their invention. Their latest menu is a tribute to great writers of our time who used to liquor up in order to divine inspiration. The Minds Undone series, devised by master mixologist Suraj Gurung and Maximal Concepts founder Malcolm Wood, contains 13 new cocktails inspired by storytellers, poets and artists, with an accompanying quote for each detailing the creative’s love of the drink.
Macabre
We are particularly excited about Macabre, a tonka bean and beeswax number that takes us into the depths of Edgar Allan Poe, but we’ll stay on for a taste of Truman Capote’s Hidden Lady with Ketel One Vodka, sake and orange sherbet and gin lover F Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender Addict with coffee and egg white for a wake-up and a shake-up. We’re a sucker for a good story; stick one in our cocktail and we’ll hunker down for a long reading.
32 Wyndham Street, Central, 2565 5268
The Bartending Legend of Bar De Luxe
The renowned mixologist behind Bar De Luxe, Hidetsugu Ueno, has a string of accolades that make him one of the most celebrated bartenders in the world. Along with his protégé and head bartender Yuriko Naganuma, who herself possesses a unique mixology flair, they have cooked up a new menu of flavours for summer sipping that we are looking forward to cooling down with in the coming months. The fresh mango cocktail is calling to us even now before the weather truly warms up with its tropical golden rum and simple fruity freshness.
29/F and 30/F, 8 Wyndham Street, Central, 3706 5716
Fresh Fun at Worth the Fuss
This bar is all about bringing out the neighbourhood attitude and getting people together over their range of classic cocktails and what they call ‘WTF Innovations’. Their bartender, Eddy Lim, was previously at chichi establishments like China Tang and now flexes his creative muscle on inventive tipples like the Whisky Fix, a colourful mix made with pineapple juice, passion fruit syrup, lime, nutmeg, cinnamon and berries. We are also curious about the Catch Me If You Can, a rum, cherry orgeat, wasabi, pineapple and lemon juice concoction with fresh cream that could be quite a potent hit for the taste buds.
10 Morrison Hill Road, Causeway Bay, 2792 0823
All this talk of cocktails has us thinking about our Best New Bar and Best Mixologist front runners for the 2017 Foodie Forks – have you nominated yours yet? Vote now!