A new cocktail menu by Penicillin – The 5 Elements

Inspired by the farm-to-bar movement taking the culinary world by storm, PENICILLIN is Hong Kong’s first sustainable bar that champions a closed-loop model of production. With a focus on either locally sourced or up-cycled food and drink ingredients, PENICILLIN’s bar menu finds innovation in the true flavours of Hong Kong while constantly looking for ways to minimize carbon footprint.

The new cocktail menu is split into five core elements of CONCRETE – WOOD – CERAMIC – METAL – GLASS. Seasonality is at the heart of PENICILLIN’s new menu, with a focus on minimizing waste to ensure the most sustainable operations possible. The names of the cocktails (in exception of One Penicillin One Tree + A Moveable Feast by Agung) are all inspired and named after books and novels on Sustainability.

One Penicillin, One Tree (HK$110) has undergone a new season makeover and features ingredients of white chocolate whisky, strawberry brine water, coconut kefir, and avocado stone provided from local Spanish eatery, @TAQUERIASUPERMACHO. The special cocktail is served in a clay cup with attention paid to the final detail, including avocado burst spray finishes inside the cup, garnishes of papaya seeds and strawberry leather, and frozen avocado ice cubes.

From the category of CONCRETE, seasonal cocktail creations include Cradle to Cradle (HK$100), featuring discarded bone gin, salted anise, lemon-buzz vermouth, and shio-koji onion. The gin is fat-washed with discarded bone broth over a meticulous overnight process, then combined with sous-vide lemon-buzz flower vermouth and anise that has been pan-heated with salt, sugar, apple cider, and Pastis / pernod. The final touches are the koji cocktail onion, which is pearl onion simmered with various herbs, shio koji and vermouth, and black squid ink infused with vodka and glucose paste.

The Drawdown (HK$100) is a collaboration with popular local bar @HONKYTONKSTAVERN for the use of its oyster shell whisky, which is then mixed by the PENICILLIN team with frothed matcha, Pandan rum, and apple sherbet. The discarded oyster shells are first sous-vided with ecoSpirits Macintosh whisky for a few hours, combined with white rum sous-vided with Pandan leaves and homemade apple sherbet, and served within a slick double-walled rock glass.

From WOOD, new cocktails include There is No Planet B (HK$100) with papaya tequila & whiskey, black olive brine, Osmanthus bitter, and sandalwood wax vermouth. Served in a double old fashioned glass with a black olive atop an ice block, the drink is created using a Rotary Evaporator to produce the papaya tequila-whisky mixture, which is paired with sous-vided upcycled vermouth and sandalwood. Osmanthus bitter is left to infuse in a vacuum-sealed bag overnight, then finished with leftover black olive brine that has been boiled, dissolved, cooled, and strained.

The Upcycled (HK$100) is created in pre-batches with rotovap corn tequila, lacto-peach liqueur, mushroom, and upcycled grapefruit cava. The Rotary Evaporator is used once again to create sweet corn tequila, which is combined with water infused with three types of dried mushrooms, homemade fresh peach cordial and pink grapefruit cava that is clarified using a high-speed centrifuge.

Cocktails that are smooth as CERAMIC include We are the Weather (HK$100) with pear rum, resurrected lime, banana-rye, oat oleo, and black salt. The pear rum is first sous-vided at a temperature of 68 degrees Celsius with ripened pear and plantation rum, then combined with Rotary Evaporator banana whisky, house-blended oat milk syrup, and recomposed lime juice. The drink is served in a chic coupette, with a garnish of black lava salt.

The other CERAMIC option is A Moveable Feast by AGUNG (HK$100), co-founder Agung’s own signature creation with discarded seashell vodka, white spiced tomato, coconut, and an oyster leaf garnish from local urban farm, @COMMONFARMS. First, the discarded seashells are broken up in a heavy duty blender along with vodka, water, and salt, then placed in an evaporation flask until the liquid is fully evaporated. Spiced tomato is created by blending fresh cherry tomato juice with seasonings and enzymes, and placed within a centrifuge bucket to produce the clarified mixture. Adding another dimension to the cocktail is freshly strained salted coconut syrup and clarified lemon juice, before being poured into a rock glass pre-coated with cheese-wax for 24 hours

METAL cocktails include Braiding Sweetgrass (HK$100), featuring cacao-butter rum, sour watercress, rice wine cordial, and frothed local tofu. Served in a thin highball glass with tofu foam and chive onion garnish from Common Farms, the vegetal cocktail is created with strained and bottled watercress honey made tart with three types of acid, Chinese rice wine cordial that is reduced and thickened over heat, clarified lime juice, and creamy tofu foam made with soy milk, sugar, vanilla extract, and soft local tofu.

This Changes Everything (HK$100) is a creative infusion of basmati rice whisky, spent coffee amaro, mezcal, and beet. Discarded basmati rice is cooked, soaked for a long period of time, and cooked again until sticky. Cooked basmati rice is infused with rye whisky and Macintosh whisky over a whole day, and combined with blended pomegranate-beet shrub and mezcal. Before stirring in the  mixing glass, the cocktail is plunged with red-hot burning copper.

The element of GLASS gives rise to cocktails including Silent Spring (HK$100) with miso whisky, discarded guava rye bread, and elder-flower lychee bitters. Miso whisky is first created using a blend of whiskeys and green miso paste, which is placed in a centrifuge and then strained with a cheese cloth. Ripened guava is blended to create fresh guava juice, which is combined with rye whisky and evaporated to create 45% ABV guava-whisky liquor. Wild elderflower and lychee bitters add the finishing touches to Silent Spring, served within a double old-fashioned glass with a white button mushroom for garnish.

The final cocktail is Small is Beautiful (HK$100), made with ultrasonic tarragon gin, coconut sparkling sake, and homemade discarded mango skin spirit. Dried tarragon and gin are vacuum-sealed and placed in the Rotary Evaporator to produce Rotovap tarragon gin, which is complemented by discarded mango skin sake (blended with sugar and acids and dissolved), and homemade coconut kombucha. The cocktail is served in a wine glass, with peeled rhubarb and a drop of rhubarb tincture to finish.

PENICILLIN is proud to partner with ecoSPIRITS (eS), the world’s first closed-loop spirits technology that strives to eliminate single-use glass bottles and dramatically reduce carbon impact. Guests will be pleased to know that each PENICILLIN cocktail accompanied by the “eS” logo saves an average of 150g in CO2 emissions.