Gone are the days when hotel bars catered to only weary travellers looking for a nightcap. These days, hotel bars have become destination bars in their own right, with many upping their game both in terms of visibility and atmosphere, as well as in their drinks menus.
Speaking of cocktail menus, Bar Trigona recently released its new The Nectar Of Time menu, and it’s arguably one of its best lineup of drinks ever.
Here, the award-winning bar doubles down on its use of Malaysian ingredients and materials (down to the paper used for the menu), while still celebrating its unique signature ingredient, Trigona honey.
The drinks play on the concept of time being fluid, drawing from Trigona’s past while looking to the future of the bar as well.
From “First Light” to the “ Eternal Hours”, the menu gently nudges you to make your order based on the time of day, instead of strong-arming you into following a fixed concept.
We started off with what is now my first favourite drink of 2026 – Melo-Nova, inspired by the melon cheesecake.
It has a wonderful myriad of flavours ranging from floral notes from the shochu base, fruity melon notes from cantaloupe, citrus sourness from lemon marigold, and topped with a savoury, salty salted cream cheese foam.
What a stunningly complex yet delicious mix of flavours.
I’ve had quite a few Paloma twists of late, but Rubi takes it to another level by using lager beer to clarify the cocktail, thus adding another element of bittersweet hops to the drink.
Mr Bean is a Long Island Iced Tea riff that uses cold brew coffee to balance out the sweetness of the cola. Absinthe stars in this drink, that taste of anise elevating the rest of the ingredients nicely.
If you like whisky highballs, then Figs is for you. It’s an elevated take on the common whisky highball, using American whiskey as a base, and young fig marmalade cooked with fig leaves, made into a semi-sweet soda.
On its own, it is unmistakably a whisky highball, with the fig influence only coming in mid-palate.
The coup de grace, however, is the freeze dried fig garnish, which re-hydrates and adds a lovely burst of juicy sweetness in your mouth.
Another highlight is the 24K, which mixes bourbon, white miso, Trigona honey, neroli, and tops it with a sensational golden kombucha foam for a silky, sensual, decadent whiskey sour unlike any you’ve ever had.
If Instagrammable drinks are what you want, the Lunara is the prettiest little thing on the menu, garnished with a beautiful raspberry frozen in ice.
Normally, raspberry would be a bit of a red flag for me, but here, the grassy, herbal note from the geranium off-sets that dreaded cloyingly sweet note, making for a really tasty berry drink.
Another picture-perfect drink would be the Glacier, which is adapted from the Lite & Easy cocktail from Trigona’s first menu and given a visual lift by a glass full of pretty little globes of butterfly pea ice.
I did have a few gripes about some of the drinks though, though nothing a little tweaking couldn’t fix.
Acar Martini is a dirty martini based on acar, and while the idea was solid, the, er, acar-ness was a little too overpowering, while The Steep was a Manhattan twist that was a little too herbal and not enough, well, Manhattan for me.
With 30 signature drinks on the menu, it can be tough to try them all in one sitting. But if you’re looking to maximise your tasting at Trigona, then the Flight Across Malaysia section is for you, as you can order all five of the cocktails in one flight of 45ml pours.
These cocktails ‘pay homage to their origins’, with one ingredient each from five of Malaysia’s states, namely tuak from Sarawak, Liberica coffee from Johor, pomelo from Perak, black pepper chocolate from Sabah, and strawberries from Pahang.
From crowd-pleasing favourites and picture perfect visual stunners, to drinks that are some of the best I’ve had this year so far, this is without a doubt Bar Trigona’s strongest cocktail menu yet.
