A visit to a bar in Kunming in China reveals a fascinating tapestry of local flavours, ingredients, and mushrooms. — Photos: MICHAEL CHEANG/The Star
The first thing you notice in Kunming are the mushrooms. It’s on every menu in the city, whether it’s food or cocktails, there’s bound to be something with mushrooms.
It’s no surprise of course, as Kunming is the capital of Yunnan province, which supposedly accounts for over 70% of the mushroom production in China.
What I did not expect was to see mushrooms feature so prominently on cocktail menus as well. Although to be fair, there are probably more mushroom producers in Kunming than cocktail bars.
While other cities like Changsha, Guangzhou and of course, Beijing and Shanghai have been making waves globally, Kunming is just taking its baby steps into the cocktail world.
One bar that does bear mentioning, however, is Suma Cocktail Bar. Located on the entire fifth floor of Shangri-La Kunming, it is arguably one of the more prominent dedicated cocktail bars in the city.
During a visit to the Chinese city a couple months ago, I got a look (and taste) of the drinks at the bar.
Suma Cocktail Bar is one of the more prominent dedicated cocktail bars in Kunming.
Suma (which means ‘azalea’ and ‘woman’ in the Yi language) opened on April 30 this year, and is described as "love letter to Yunnan". The bar was developed in collaboration with SG Group, the bar, restaurant and consultancy company founded by the renowned bartender and ‘cocktail trailblazer’ Shingo Gokan.
According to Suma's bar manager Frankie Zou, Suma stands out among the other bars in Kunming in that it focuses more on cocktail-making techniques, and tries to build the region’s unique local ingredients into their drinks.
“We actually use a lot of local spirits and ingredients, such as winter mushrooms, black truffles, tree tomatoes, Yunnan honey, ginger, grapefruits, and many more like flowers, tree bark and herbs,” he said.
“We also use gin, whisky and rice wine from Yunnan, and also some homemade liqueurs, tinctures and so on. So that makes us a bit more different from other bars in the city.”
The menu at Suma is shaped like a fan, with the drinks categorised into four segments.
Flavours of Yunnan
The bar itself draws inspiration from Austrian-American botanist Joseph Rock’s expeditions through Western China in the early 20th Century.
It invites you to explore the region’s diverse landscapes and cultures, from the beautiful indoor bar lounge to the outdoor lounge, with its lush open-air garden.
The outdoor lounge is also where the bar has its own herb garden, where they grow the herbs they use in their drinks as part of their sustainability efforts.
Designed in the shape of a rotating fan, Soma’s 20 drinks are categorised into four sections - Spice, Fruity and Floral, Umami, and Bitter.
The Yak Butter Fashioned is made with rye whiskey fat washed with yak butter.
Some drinks are drawn directly from everyday flavours, for instance, the Nanpie Mule reimagines a herbaceous dipping sauce used in Dai cuisine; while the Cucumber Salad is a refreshing tribute to a beloved Kunming dish.
"We wanted to create cocktails that don’t feel foreign or intimidating, and to feel like an invitation to discover a part of Yunnan’s story,” Zou said.
He adds that for many of the drinks, they created a unique twist on classic cocktails, for instance, the Yak Butter Fashioned.
The drink is inspired by the beloved better tea ritual of the Shangri-La (Diqing) region, melding malt whisky and SG Group’s Mugi shochu with yak butter, roasted pu’er, and raw orange blossom honey, resulting in a spirit-forward drink that is silky, smoky, and gently spiced, with a whisper of earth and grain.
The Tree Tomato Tree is a twist on Shingo Gokan's signature Tomato Tree cocktail.
“Yunnan is close to Tibet, and they have a lot of yaks there, and the people there make yak butter. So we washed the whiskey with yak butter to develop a more creamy buttery flavour into the Old Fashioned,” Zou said.
Another interesting cocktail on the menu was the tangy, tasty Tree Tomato Tree, Suma’s playful tribute to one of Shingo Gokan’s signature cocktails, the iconic Tomato Tree.
It’s no surprise that these two cocktails were among the three drinks Zou recommends when you visit Suma, the third being the Paloma Passion, a refreshing riff on the classic Paloma but using local passion fruit, golden berry, and Yunnan ginger and honey.
ThePaloma Passion is a unique twist on the classic Paloma cocktail.
However, there was one other drink that really stood out for me. And of course, it had to be a mushroom cocktail.
The Magic Manhattan, which comes in a striking black glass, pays homage to Yunnan’s status as the mushroom capital of China.
A riff on the classic Manhattan, the drink combines Templeton Rye whiskey with a medley of locally foraged mushrooms – specifically matsutake for its deep aroma, and jicong for its meat-like texture – and layers it with orange wine vermouth and green walnut.
The Magic Manhattan combines a medley of locall-foraged mushrooms for an earthy, umami-filled twist of a classic.
The result was arguably one of my favourite drinks at Suma – a, yes, mushroomy Manhattan, but one with overwhelming umami flavours mingling with the sweeter notes of the vermouth, as well as the distinct rye whiskey spiciness from the Templeton.
For me, this drink really encapsulated the local yet classic vibe of the drinks at Suma. So if you’re ever in Kunming and happen to visit Suma, don’t forget the mushrooms.
Michael Cheang is a little mushroomed out. Follow him on Instagram (@mytipsyturvy) or Facebook (fb.com/mytipsyturvy).
