Bar Trigona at Four Seasons Hotel Kuala Lumpur has unveiled its new cocktail menu, dubbed Life Cycle of a Fruit, which reimagines the ways in which popular Malaysian fruit is utilized.
The bar, which was recently named one of Asia’s top 15 bars and Malaysia’s best bar in the Asia’s 50 best Bars awards, is helmed by head bartender Ashish Sharma, who was determined to change perceptions of fruit based on aesthetics.
“Nearly one-third of perfectly edible fruit ends up being discarded because of its appearance,” explains the bartender. “We want to minimize wastage by redefining the aesthetics of fruit.”
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Paying homage to home-grown produce, Life Cycle of a Fruit embraces the rich and varied avatars of fruit sourced from local farmers. Each cocktail tells a flavourful story, from tales of jackfruit and watermelon to mythologies of mango and Mandarin orange. Business travellers can now 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 a new form, such as the Mango Negroni, crafted with mango-distilled gin, Campari and Aperol.
Led by Ashish’s vision, Bar Trigona’s award-winning mixology team has been busy these past few months, experimenting 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. Ashish also favours a skin-to-seed approach, ensuring that each component of the ingredient comes into play, either in cocktails or for other culinary purposes. Sustainability has long been the watchword at Bar Trigona, with its pioneering approach garnering the prestigious Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award two years in a row.
Life Cycle of a Fruit also reinforces the team’s commitment to native Malaysian honeybees. Trigona honey, the inspiration behind the bar’s name as well as a hive of eco-friendly initiatives, lends its sweet and sour notes to a number of signature cocktails. This highly sought-after nectar is sourced by Four Seasons in small batches from Dino’s Kelulut Organic Farm in Negeri Sembilan and guests can experience the diversity of honey with a tasting flight featuring three versions of the same cocktail made with different varieties of honey.
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“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.”
Alongside concoctions of fruit and honey, the new menu introduces a series of cocktails aged in clay pots. The drinks are aged between 7-12 days in locally-made unglazed pottery, recreating an ancient Asian practice that goes back 8,000 years. As Ashish explains, “Because clay pots are porous, they create a very unique aging environment. Clay breathes faster than oak barrels and interacts more with the liquid, imparting a wonderfully earthy flavour to the cocktail.”
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After months of innovating, testing, and tasting, the team at Bar Trigona is now looking forward to sharing their creations with the world. Aficionados, get set for a story-infused cocktail adventure.
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