Most people order a cocktail based on what's in it. Bartenders, on the other hand, think about how it's made. That distinction matters more than you might think. Two drinks can contain nearly identical ingredients yet taste and feel completely different depending on the technique used to prepare them. A shaken Martini has a brighter, airier texture than a stirred one. Roll a Bloody Mary instead of shaking it, and you'll get a silkier, less frothy drink. These techniques aren'

Southeast Asia's craft cocktail scene did not spring fully formed after the pandemic years. It was seeded, nurtured, and shaped by a generation of bartenders and bar owners – both local and expatriate – who were doing the work long before the region was on anyone's radar. To understand where the scene is now, you have to understand where it came from. And to do that, we need to go back even further... to the era before craft cocktails existed here at all. Before Craft: Hotel

Shochu is one of those spirits people think they understand until they actually have to explain it. Then suddenly it becomes “Japanese vodka,” “strong sake,” “something like soju,” or my personal favorite: “that clear thing Japanese uncles drink with hot water.” All understandable. All slightly wrong. Shochu is Japan’s native distilled spirit. It is built on koji fermentation, regional ingredients, and centuries of drinking culture. It can be made from barley, rice, sweet pot

Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state , comprising over 17,000 different islands. As a region, it has a rich history of foreign influences, both as a colonized region and a trading hub. Combined with the rich tapestry of the different tribes, ethnicities, and religious beliefs throughout its many islands, Indonesia probably produces one of the most diverse varieties of spirits in Southeast Asia. While most of the drinks are palm and rice spirits typical of the

At any cocktail bar, the centerpiece is undoubtedly the bar counter: it defines the space as a 'bar' that serves booze. This long, elevated surface serves the purpose of not just serving drinks to customers (standing or sitting), but also a space for conversation between both sides of the counter. The bar counter seems so natural that it’s easy to assume it has always existed. In reality, it emerged in the 19th century alongside another important development in drinking cultu

There’s a persistent myth in Southeast Asia that “women didn’t really drink back then.” That cocktails are a modern invention. History says otherwise. If you leaf through newspapers, memoirs, advertisements, and society columns from interwar Malaya, you’ll find women drinking – sometimes discreetly, sometimes defiantly, often stylishly – as early as the 1920s. Not just sipping sherry in the corner, but attending cocktail parties, hosting pahit parties, and eventually being j