Kuala Lumpur’s cocktail scene is a living, breathing organism — shifting, evolving, and drawing its energy from a blend of community spirit, deep-rooted identity, and a creative tension that looks toward the future. Between five-star hotels and unassuming backstreets, the city has found in mixology a new language — one that tells its story through contrasts, convictions, and a thirst for reinvention.
Sipping Sustainably at Bar Trigona, Four Seasons Kuala Lumpur
One of the city’s most emblematic addresses is Bar Trigona, perched inside the Four Seasons Hotel Kuala Lumpur. Through its soaring windows, the Petronas Twin Towers glow night and day, their reflections shimmering in crystal glasses that ring the bar’s perimeter. Here, every cocktail is a gesture of reverence to Malaysia’s land and people, forged in close collaboration with local farmers and with a deep reverence for biodiversity. The bar takes its name from the stingless trigona bee, a native species at the heart of a sustainability mission led by bar manager Darwin Ng.
A Drink List Designed to Save the Bees
Its latest drink list, Colour Me Curious 2.0, marks a further step in that mission: each drink sold supports the regeneration of bee habitats across the country. The menu, true to its name, is a vivid symphony of colours, textures, and scents — playful, curious, and anchored in discovery. It spans creations like Bloom, a heady mix of tequila, pink dragon fruit, Trigona honey liqueur, caviar, and ginger beer, and Cosmos, a bright blend of vodka, honey jackfruit, butterfly pea flower,Trigona honey, and a lemonade ice sphere. For those craving something more decadent, there’s Wagyu, a sumptuous pour of cognac, A5 wagyu fat, spiced vermouth and Kulim bitters, or Elysian, where vodka meets Chablis Premier Cru, wormwood and lemon bitters — best sipped with the house’s Oscietra caviar.
Adopt a Beehive, a Sustainable Project
Coherence runs through every detail: the menu itself is printed on Eco Hemp paper, and the bar’s single-origin cocktails extract the full character of one Malaysian ingredient — pomelo or banana, for example — using every element from peel to seed. For guests who want to take it further, the Adopt a Beehive initiative allows you to symbolically sponsor a trigona hive, directly supporting local beekeeping practices.
Inside Penrose, Jon Lee’s Bar in Kuala Lumpur
From the refined sustainability of the Four Seasons, it’s time to move to the architectural precision of Penrose, a bar that has quickly defined its own path. Founded by Jon Lee in August 2022, it rose meteorically through Asia’s rankings, earning the title of Best Bar in Malaysia 2024. The method is near-clinical in its clarity, structured around five pillars: alcohol, taste, flavour, body, and dilution. But there is poetry too. The Rum Musa — Penrose’s take on the Banana Daiquiri — layers distilled banana, tamarind, allspice, and tonka bean into something delicate and complex. The space itself is quiet and focused: a central counter encourages exchange, conversation, and intention. No wasted gestures, just distilled attention.
Three x Co, The Hidden Bar of Kuala Lumpur
In another corner of the city, tucked behind a storefront in a shopping mall, lies Three X Co — a speakeasy with a pop-soul heart. Launched in 2017 by three friends, the bar champions a kind of mixology that is both elevated and radically inclusive. Its latest menu, Indi v Duality, is a manifesto conceived by Head Bartender Amanda Wan — a seasoned figure in the global cocktail circuit, with experience in New York, Singapore and Hong Kong.
“Indi” VS “Duality”
The menu is split in two: Indi offers creative spins on the classics, while Duality introduces signature cocktails that upend expectation. But beyond the compositions, this is a personal, powerful statement. After years spent challenging the stereotypes of her profession, Amanda has built a cocktail list that celebrates individuality as both courage and truth. Each drink is captured in a portrait of a customer-muse — celebrating self-expression through the very act of enjoying a cocktail. The menu’s design, led by a team of local creatives, completes a collective portrait of what a bar can be: a safe space, a mirror, a movement.
This is Kuala Lumpur today, a city in motion, alive with ideas, able to reconcile beauty, ethics and technique in a single glass. Here, cocktails are meant to be tasted, but also heard, read, remembered. They’re an invitation to slow down, to pay attention, and to be moved. One sip at a time.
The article first appeared on Coqtail – for fine drinkers. Order your copy here
