Chapter 2 at Taylor Adam: A fitting tribute to South and Southeast Asian flavours

The new Taylor Adam Chapter 2 cocktail menu, Pride of the East, explores the flavours inspired by the old British trade routes in Asia.

Taylor Adam, the speakeasy cocktail bar hidden behind an innocuous faux atelier shopfront in One Raffles Place, has a new cocktail menu. “Chapter 2: Pride of the East” is the follow-up to its debut chapter that built its cocktails around the cultures and flavours of the British Commonwealth.

Which, of course, if you’re familiar with old British colonial aspirations, was all over the place. But Chapter 2 is a lot more focused this time. “Pride of the East” follows the old trade routes of the British in the Far East, drawing inspiration mostly from South Asia and Southeast Asia cultures.

Our friends over at Spill sound impressed with Taylor Adam’s new cocktail menu. As you’ll find out soon, we are too.

The new menu retains some popular favourites from the first menu – the LSD, Prince of Wales, and New York New York, for example – but is otherwise mostly new. From South Asia (and the Indian diaspora all the way to Singapore) are cocktails like Nimbu Pani, a booze take on the popular streetside Indian lemonade that’s loaded with gin and spiked with masala chaat powder for a spicy and tangy hit, or Masala Chai, a creamy concoction of cognac and milk spiced up with chai spices.

Across the causeway? We have Bunga Raya, a beautifully pink-hued gin sour coloured with a touch of hibiscus (that being the national flower of Malaysia). Or how about the fruity Taiping Town, a harmonious – if shockingly spirited – blend of rum, gin, as well as Malaysia’s own Timah Whiskey?

But its the cocktails that draw upon Southeast Asia’s food cultures – particularly Malaya – that we’re most impressed with. Peranakan Sunset, for all intents and purposes, is a more sublime and nuanced Singapore Sling, with a blue pea flower and kaffir lime twist. Absolutely gorgeous are Snow Rose, (another) gin sour inspired by the traditional Malay kuih rose sago dessert, as well as Onde Onde, a vodka-based creation that tastes exactly like that Javanese dessert complete with its pandan, palm sugar, and coconut flavours.

In our previous visit, our advice was to go for the bespoke cocktails. This time though? Taylor Adam Chapter 2 is a whimsical boozy voyage of South Asian and Southeast Asian flavours that’ll take up all your time to explore.

Taylor Adam

Address 1 Raffles Place, #01-03, Singapore 048616 (Google Maps link)
Opening Hours 5pm to 12mn Mondays to Saturdays; closed on Sundays
Tel (65) 8879 5854
Facebook tayloradam.sg
Instagram @tayloradam.sg