Asia’s 50 Best Sustainable Bar Penicillin unveils an all-new seasonal eco-conscious cocktails, organic ferments and bar bites

Closed-loop bar PENICILLIN, the city’s leading sustainable bar by bar legends Agung Prabowo and Roman Ghale, is excited to announce the first re-vamp of its entire cocktail, organic ferments & food menu since opening in November 2020 last year.

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.

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; and The Drawdown (HK$100), 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.

From WOOD, new cocktails include There is No Planet B (HK$100) with papaya tequila, black olive brine, Osmanthus bitter, and sandalwood wax vermouth; and The Upcycled (HK$100) with sous-vide corn tequila, lacto-peach liqueur, mushroom, and upcycled grapefruit cava.

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; along with 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 from local urban farm, @COMMONFARMS.

METAL cocktails include Braiding Sweetgrass (HK$100), featuring cacao-butter rum, sour watercress, rice wine cordial, and frothed local tofu; and This Changes Everything (HK$100) with basmati rice whisky, spent coffee amaro, copper soldered mezcal, and beet.

The final element of GLASS gives rise to cocktails including Silent Spring (HK$100) with miso whisky, discarded guava rye bread, and elder-flower lychee bitters; and Small is Beautiful (HK$100) with ultrasonic tarragon gin, coconut sparkling sake, and homemade discarded mango skin spirit.

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.

New Organic Ferments & Seasonal Bar Bites

With a lower alcoholic beverage content (ABV) than the seasonal cocktails, PENICILLIN’s refreshing organic ferments are brewed in-house and the perfect choice for Hong Kong’s sweltering summer. Bursting with beneficial live bacteria, enzymes, vitamins, and minerals, new organic ferments include Coffee (HK$90), fermented over 5 days and made with the unlikely yet effective combination of discarded coffee, vanilla and chicken broth; Burgundy (HK$90), fermented over 7 days with cocoa, beetroot and coconut; Rose (HK$90), fermented over 6 days with rose petal, lychee, and cinnamon; Chocolate (HK$90), fermented over 10 days with cacao beans, mushrooms, and sesame; and the classic Cider (HK$90), fermented over 10 days with apple, spiced honey, and pineapple.

Pair your drink with the delicious savoury menu of snacks from the PENICILLIN kitchen, which are almost all locally sourced and upcycled from various cocktail ingredients. New seasonal eats include Fries (HK$80) with potato infused in ultrasonic chamber, togarashi, lemongrass mayo, and Parmesan; Hot Dog (HK$100) with spicy pork dog, relish, mustard, and garlic-chives from @COMMONFARMS; BBQ Pork (HK$140) with BBQ pork in smoky whisky served with chef’s daily pickles; Avocado Hummus (HK$90), PENICILLIN’s popular vegan dip; Shio-Koji Fried Chicken (HK$145) with local chicken fermented in shio-koji, served with yuzu mayo, micro-herbs and pickles; Fish & Chips (HK$150) with kale-spinach battered @OASIS grouper, fries, sriracha, and @COMMONFARMS sorel; PENICILLIN Burger (HK$150) with Beyond Meat vegetarian patties, chef’s pickles, cheddar, and green fries; and finally, Assorted Skewers (HK$150) that feature seasonally-changing meat skewers.