Award-winning Bar Trigona at Four Seasons Hotel Kuala Lumpur offers whimsical cocktail takes inspired by the colourful aromas and tastes of Malaysia.
Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok may dominate news in Asia’s frenetically vibrant cocktail scene, but visitors to Kuala Lumpur will find that the city has no lack of good cocktail-centric watering holes. In fact the Malaysia capital has seen its own bar sector grow steadily pace despite challenging cultural and religious restrictions, a momentum spearheaded by a number of excellent cocktail venues with a drive to put Malaysia on the cocktail map.
Among them? Bar Trigona.
The Four Seasons Kuala Lumpur cocktail lounge has been a shining beacon for Kuala Lumpur’s cocktail scene since throwing open its hallowed doors back in 2018. Its name alone is a giveaway. Named after the trigona honey bee – of which some species are endemic to Malaysia – Bar Trigona originally debuted with a progressive cocktail menu that leaned on the honey produced those native stingless bees, the bar even working closely with local producers to grow colonies for those honey.
That story of sustainability and hyper-locality worked. Curious cocktail lovers swarmed to sample their honey-lashed cocktails, employed in takes on classics from whiskey sours to Old Fashioneds. That buzz has steadily landed Bar Trigona on the Asia’s 50 Best Bars rankings since 2020 – winning the vaunted sustainable award that year too, no less – and was most recently No.36 in the 2024 list. In 2022 it also picked up the award programme’s ‘Best Cocktail Menu’ award, a testament to the strength of not only Bar Trigona’s concept but also in its execution.
Its latest menu, ‘Colour Me Curious’ moves somewhat away from bees and honey. Instead Bar Trigona head bartender Rohan Matmary and team has broadened their focus, bringing guests on a sensory journey of Malaysia’s aromas and flavours in their newest cocktails.
They are certainly as colourful as they sound. You have the likes of Iris (pictured above) – an opulent cognac twist on the classic White Russian with notes of nutmeg and coffee – that comes violet hued. You’ll marvel too at the shimmering brass of Inca, a spectacular tropical take on Vieux Carré.
There’s still trigona honey in some of these, of course. The shy pink Blush, for example, is a fruity highball made with trigona honey, dragon fruit, and chamomile. Or the enchanting nectar-like Bumblebee (top picture), a beautifully straw gold Old Fashioned rich with bourbon and rye rounded off with orange blossom and trigona honey, along with just an alluring touch of bitterness from amaro montenegro.
Or, if you so prefer, wax lyrical over a flight of trigona-laced classics – Airmail from Trigona, Trigona Penicillin (pictured above), and the Trigona Bee’s Knees, of course – to explore the wonders of this honey.
“Since its inception, Bar Trigona has been a space for constant discovery,” Matmary explains. “Our latest cocktails are meticulously designed to awaken all five senses, with each drink unfolding a fascinating story of tastes and textures, colours and aromas.”
Well, colour me impressed.
Bar Trigona
Address 145, Jln Ampang, Four Seasons Kuala Lumpur, 50450 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Google Maps link)
Opening Hours 5pm to 1am daily
Tel (60) 3 2382 8670
Web www.fourseasons.com/kualalumpur/dining/lounges/bar-trigona
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Instagram @bartrigona
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