If you’ve ever found yourself in the streets of Central, Hong Kong at night, it’s easy to get lost in the urban frenzy of it all. Just looking up at buildings treats you to commercial spectacles, similar to the holograph advertisements seen in the Blade Runner movies. But what is one to do aside from walking around to marvel at the sights? Consider bar hopping.

Central is home to some of the best bars you’ll find worldwide. During a recent trip organized by the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB), I found myself exploring some of these bars during an impromptu bar crawl initiated by a fellow SEA journalist. One of HKTB’s employees decided to act as our guide as we walked around Central to locate the bars.

Our first target was Coa, listed as the top bar in Asia’s 50 Best Bars list. Drinks served in Coa are inspired by the flavors of Mexico. Each week, a new cocktail is introduced based on seasonal ingredients handpicked by Coa’s team. I had hoped to get the Ancho Highball, a tequila drink mixed with salted plum, ancho chile, and guava soda. Unfortunately, the queue for entry was too long. There were about 12 others in the queue for an already-filled bar. Just goes to show how popular the bar is.

Lucky for us, just a short walk away was The Savory Project, a new bar founded by the same team behind Coa. The name is derived from the bar’s cocktails utilizing ingredients that invoke a sense of savory and umami notes. Don’t get confused when looking at the menu, as the drinks are named after savory dishes. To have some variety, we all ordered different drinks.

I played it safe by ordering the Dirty Martini, olives served alongside gin, green chilis, and aromatized wine. It had a briney taste brought about by the olives. One of the other drinks that stood out for me was the Thai Beef Salad cocktail, a mix of beef, peanut, coconut, chili, kaffir lime, and rum. The only way I could describe it is that it tasted like I was sipping on alcoholic soup, which worked in the drink’s favor as odd as it sounds. Another memorable drink was the Pepper + Corn drink. It’s a mix of charred corn husk, cumin, peppers, tomato, mezcal, and MSG. Each sip has a smokey flavor to it and sends a warm sensation down the throat. If you happen to visit the bar, tell them it’s your first time so that they can explain each drink you order.

For our next bar, we visited Penicillin. Penicillin is known for placing 26th in Asia’s 50 Best Bars list. It gained recognition for being one of the first bars in Hong Kong to practice a sustainable closed-loop model of production. To lessen its waste, the bar finds ways to recycle and upcycle common waste or kitchen byproducts while self-brewing, growing, and reusing ingredients used in its cocktails. Upon entry, you’ll find that the bar feels like entering a laboratory with its white tile motif in the welcoming area and the experimental bottles hanging by the bar wall. For here, I ordered the drink named Our Final Warning. It consists of rotovap watermelon gin, omija vermouth, and pink jalapeno sous-vide campari. There was a perfect blend of fruitiness and spiciness in this drink.

Among my companion’s drinks, what stood out was the One Penicillin, One Tree. It’s a special drink that ensures the buyer that one tree is planted in the Kalimantan rainforest of Indonesia every time it is served. The mix consists of waste white chocolate whisky, strawberry brine, coconut kefir, and topped with papaya seed leather. Certainly, it was a sweet sensation to the senses.