Video Credit : 50 Best Bars TV
Bar Trigona, located in Four Seasons Hotel Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was named the winner of the Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award by Asia’s 50 Best Bars on Thursday 23 April 2020. It is the second consecutive year that the Kuala Lumpur-based bar has won the award, after receiving the same accolade in 2019.
The Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award recognises the bar that exemplifies the highest commitment to sustainability, ethical sourcing and the wider community, based on an independent audit carried out by Food Made Good Global, 50 Best’s Sustainability Partner.
It is the first of a series of preannounced special awards that will recognise the achievements of bars in Asia over the past 12 months, which will be revealed in the weeks leading up to the virtual countdown of the annual list on Thursday 14 May 2020
After consultation with Asia’s bar community, 50 Best made the decision to go ahead with the announcement of the list of Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2020 and the accompanying special awards. This year’s virtual countdown is not designed to be a celebration, but rather a recognition of the bars and their teams’ hard work over the past year.
The hospitality sector is in turmoil now, with the bar scene particularly affected. 50 Best hopes that the announcement of these awards will shine some light into the days of darkness and will be of assistance when the time comes for them to reopen and recover.
Bar Trigona serves intricately crafted concoctions using indigenous and sustainable ingredients. Head Bartender and Bar Manager Ashish Sharma helms the venue and spotlights Malaysian produce in the drinks, whether it is small-batch Trigona honey from an organic farm in Negeri Sembilan, wild turmeric harvested in Pahang or tropical fruits from a Bangi organic farm.
"Now is the perfect time to think about how we can all work more sustainably as it can have 100% of our concentration."
Mark Sansom, Content Editor for Asia’s 50 Best Bars, says: “We are pleased to be able to take the opportunity to recognise the hard work that Bar Trigona has put in over the past year. Ashish and his team thoroughly deserve to receive the Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award for the second time, after significantly improving the bar’s sustainability score through innovative new programmes such as its Save the Bees initiative and increasing efforts to support local farmers. As the bar landscape in Asia and across the world prepares for recovery, it is important to recognise the achievements that have taken the teams this far.”
Named after the stingless trigona bee that is native to Southeast Asia, the bar opened in 2018 and garnered quick recognition for its innovative and eco-friendly cocktails. It works closely with four local farms to source for most of its ingredients, which provide the produce no matter what its shape, size or appearance. All fruits are delivered in bulk and without plastic packaging; no part of the fruit is wasted and anything over-ripe is used to make fermented juices.
One of Bar Trigona’s latest initiatives is its Save the Bees programme, which not only highlights the provenance of its small-batch local honey but encourages its customers to be part of the sustainability initiative by adopting their own hive of honeybees.
Guests can also shop for all its local partners’ products, such as honey jars, mutiara figs jam, chocolate and sustainable travel kits made of bamboo, at the bar’s dedicated retail corner. Furthering its commitment to drinking sustainably, the bar is also an adopter of the new ecoSPIRITS technology, which aims to minimise the usage of glass bottles, and means it receives the spirits at a lower cost than if they were delivered in bottles.
Bar Trigona Head Bartender and Bar Manager Ashish Sharma says: “It is a real honour to win the award for the Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award again. It rewards the hard work of my team who are truly passionate about operating sustainably and it is great news for us to be able to speak about something positive in this difficult period. Now is the perfect time to think about how we can all work more sustainably as it can have 100% of our concentration. Five years ago, no one had really heard about sustainable practices in the bar sector, so we have come a long way in a relatively short space of time, but there is definitely more we can do.”
The Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award was introduced to Asia’s 50 Best Bars for the first time in 2018. Potato Head Beach Club in Bali, Indonesia was the inaugural winner. The sustainability rating of each bar is assessed by Food Made Good Global through a system specially adapted from their restaurant rating, which has been used to assess sustainability for 10 years.
The fifth edition of the Asia’s 50 Best Bars, sponsored by Perrier, will be unveiled in a digital countdown on Thursday 14 May, beginning at 7pm Singapore time. Bars and cocktail lovers are invited to join the live run-through of the list on The World’s 50 Best Bars Facebook page and 50 Best Bars TV YouTube channel.
A. 145, Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur, 50450 Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
W. www.fourseasons.com/kualalumpur/dining/lounges/bar-trigona
