Sips in the city: Hong Kong-inspired cocktails you should try

Clan & Company Community Bar crafts creative pours using spirits by local distillery Magnolia Lab. The menu is inspired by leung cha, or Chinese herbal tea, with traditional remedies translated into bittersweet cocktails using local botanicals like angelica root and roselle.

Don’t miss signature tipples such as Salted Kumquat, made with gin and kumquat honey, and Dung Jai Fei, Iced Black Coffee, a local riff on an espresso martini that blends tangerine peel-infused vodka with coffee, Kahlua and yuzu honey.

Clan & Company Community Bar
Address: G/F, 830 Canton Road, Yau Ma Tei

Dio Café Bar serves a series of locally inspired pours from its secluded, Central location. Named after Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, this sleek, minimalist nook offers single-origin coffees by day and savoury pours by night. The bar leans heavily into the complex, umami-rich flavours of Cantonese cuisine, with a menu structured by intensity.

Stand-outs include Iced Pineapple, a tequila-based creation inspired by the local summer snack of frozen pineapple slices; and Sugar-coasted Haws, a gin-based mix that blends cold brew hawthorn tea with homemade strawberry pureé, lime juice and orange bitters.

Dio Café Bar
Address: Shop A, G/F, 8 Aberdeen Street, Central, Hong Kong

Tatler Best Service Bar 2026 Argo regularly refreshes its menu with themes that celebrate the city, its people and the mixology scene as a whole. Under the direction of new beverage director Johnathan Gabbay, the cocktail lounge is turning away from drinking trends towards a menu of hyper-local, hyper-seasonal and heritage-forward drinks. The latest edition, the Exploration menu, pays tribute to Hong Kong’s creative talents and restaurateurs through cocktails shaped by local produce and authentic flavours.

Chapter one includes six cocktails crafted in collaboration with local personalities and restaurants. Chapter two features seasonally dependent ingredient rotations. Chapter three spotlights Argo’s most popular cocktails throughout the years, including the Argo Martini. Other must-try cocktails include Hong Kong Punch, a collaboration with cha chaan teng Tai On Coffee & Tea that blends the classic yuen yeung, Hong Kong-style milk tea with coffee, with egg tarts; and Broth & Soul, a twist on the Bloody Mary that nods to local favourite Big JJ Seafood Hotpot.

See also: The Tatler Best 20 Bars in Hong Kong 2026

Perched atop the Mondrian Hong Kong, Avoca serves a menu of cocktails inspired by Kowloon’s neighbourhoods and stories. Under the creative direction of head bartender Rolf Flaminiano, the menu transforms the city’s everyday comfort flavours into sophisticated sips—think spiked cha chaan teng drinks and classic cocktails infused with local flavours.

Favourites include the LGM Mary, a tequila-based tipple made with Lao Gan Ma black bean chilli oil, and the Sesame and Peanut Butter Sour, a nod to the street-side cheung fun, the rice noodle rolls that come slathered in generous drizzles of Hong Kong-style sweet sauce and peanut butter.

Hong Kong is marked by its multicultural community, and Friday After Class is celebrating this diversity with a menu that distils cosmopolitan identities into sippable creations. A Story of Integration: The Third Culture Sip translates third-culture experiences into cocktails led by Hong Kong, European and Southeast Asian flavours, featuring sweet profiles alongside sophisticated blends where bitterness, acidity and aromatics dominate.

Highlights include the Spice and Sesame Martini, a savoury bourbon-based cocktail where black sesame leads with familiar sweetness, accented with refreshing notes of lemongrass and lime; and Tom Yum Coco, which reimagines the hot and sour Thai soup with gin, coconut and traditional tom yum spices.

Friday After Class
Address: 52 Peel Street, Central, Hong Kong

This speakeasy serves cocktails inspired by the city’s ever-changing energy, from morning to night, with a menu progressing from light flavours to deep, spirit-forward libations.

Mornings are represented by refreshing tipples such as First Sight, a blend of elderflower liqueur, osmanthus tea and peach bitters, while the afternoon sees itself in bolder combinations such as Viva, a milk-washed creation that pairs cured meat-fat-washed rum with roasted pineapple cordial.

25th Hour
Address: 13/F, Luk Yu Building, 24-26 Stanley Street, Central, Hong Kong

Quinary, a Tatler Best 20 Bars 2026 honouree, has, for a decade, been a key drinking destination for locals and visitors alike, guided by a multi-sensory approach to mixology. Beyond the signature Earl Grey Caviar Martini—which comes with a towering cloud of tea-infused “air” that dissipates dramatically at the table—the bar’s latest menu serves as a liquid map of Hong Kong, with each cocktail telling a unique neighbourhood story, from the shores of Tai O to the busyness of Kowloon.

Flavour, the latest chapter in the bar’s The Five Senses series, features cocktails such as Cheeky Float, a nod to Central’s traditional herbal tea shops and crafted with local five-flower tea gin and sugar cane juice; and Wish & Wonder, an aromatic ode to the incense-filled Wong Tai Sin Temple made with rice-based liqueur and a cedarwood tincture.

Salon Lanson is an elegant lounge and bar in Causeway Bay that serves a curated menu of food and drinks. The latest is a hyper-local edition of its Hong Kong Odyssey cocktail series, and takes the storied streets of the surrounding neighbourhood as inspiration. Led by head mixologist Manuel Saavedra, the collection features nine cocktails listed on a menu designed to be used as a walking map.

A highlight is Incense and Tide, a Negroni-style cocktail inspired by the nearby Tin Hau Temple. Using dried kumquat-infused shochu as a base, this bold creation is balanced with Lapsang Souchong-infused Campari and sweet vermouth for a layered tasting experience.

The alfresco terrace at Dorsett Kai Tak’s rooftop destination Jin Bo Law Skybar overlooks what used to be the former Kai Tak Airport runway, one of the city’s most iconic collective memories. Hong Kong-inspired cocktails lead the menu, focusing on the neighbourhood’s enduring history.

Under the direction of beverage manager Damon Fung, A Timeless Hong Kong Tale leads with local flavours and ingredients, with highlights such as Pineapple Bun with Butter, a tribute to the beloved bo lo bau, with lychee baijiu, pineapple juice and coconut milk, and Kai Tak Airport, which nods to the neighbourhood’s aviation history, with bourbon whisky, orange and yuzu baijiu.

Jin Bo Law Skybar
Address: 15/F, Dorsett Kai Tak, Hong Kong, 43 Shing Kai Road, Kai Tak, Hong Kong

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