London’s cocktail scene has always thrived on discovery. Hidden speakeasies, boundary-pushing bartenders, and ingredients you’ve never heard of but suddenly can’t stop talking about. This June, a brand-new festival is inviting us to do exactly that – only this time, the journey heads east with Taste The Orient London.

From 22-28 June, Taste the Orient London will transform London into a week-long celebration of Asian flavour, culture, and cocktail craftsmanship. It brings together 45 of the capital’s most exciting Asian bars and restaurants. Combining these iconic mixologists will create a city-wide cocktail adventure unlike anything we’ve seen before.

Created by the Orientalist Spirits and curated by the team behind London Cocktail Week, the festival promises rare ingredients, unexpected serves, and a fresh perspective on what modern cocktail culture can be. Michel Lu is an entrepreneur who has been successful across a variety of sectors, including hospitality, luxury, fashion, and music. While The Orientalist Spirits is currently one of his most recent businesses, he has been an entrepreneur for over thirty years. Michel has a diverse portfolio of ventures that have connected him with very interesting people, from managing supermodels Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista through his involvement with Elite Model Management’s Asia expansion to forming Jungk, the first Asian girl band, in collaboration with Malcolm McLaren. One thing almost all of his ventures have in common is that they are connected to Asia in some way.

Hannah Sharman-Cox and Siobhán Payne, the brilliant founders of London Cocktail Week, are having a serious moment this year. And deservedly so. After years of shaping the capital’s cocktail culture from the inside out, their influence feels stronger than ever, not just through the continued success of London Cocktail Week, but through their wider work as sharp-eyed commentators, industry connectors and champions of the people behind the bar. Their column in The Times has given a wider audience what the industry has long valued in them: a generous, brilliantly informed way of decoding London’s bar scene, from where to find a properly made martini to how to navigate the city’s ever-evolving cocktail culture with confidence, curiosity and style. Together, they have become two of hospitality’s most compelling voices. Smart, generous, brilliantly plugged-in and genuinely great at making London’s bar scene feel exciting, inclusive and world-class.

London’s Most Exciting Cocktail Passport

Part of what makes London Cocktail Week so beloved is the thrill of exploration. Taste the Orient taps into that same spirit but swaps traditional cocktail routes for a journey through Asia’s diverse culinary and drinking traditions.

There are no wristbands, tickets, or entry fees. Instead, cocktail enthusiasts can simply collect a Festival Guide from participating venues and create their own routes across the city.

From glamorous rooftop bars and luxury hotel destinations to hidden basement speakeasies and the neighbourhood favourites, every stop offers a unique interpretation of Asian flavours.

Think less bar crawl, more flavour expedition.

Forget Everything You Thought You Knew About Cocktail Ingredients

If your cocktail comfort zone begins and ends with passionfruit, espresso, and elderflower, prepare to have your horizons expanded. Asia has an abundance of beautiful ingredients that we cannot grow in the UK.

Taste the Orient shines a spotlight on ingredients that rarely make an appearance behind a London bar. Throughout the week, bartenders will be experimenting with everything from:

• Fresh mangosteen
• Okinawan black sugar
• Buddha’s Hand citrus
• Sake kasu
• And many more !

These aren’t ingredients chosen purely for novelty. Many have centuries of culinary and cultural significance across Asia, offering flavour profiles that range from intensely aromatic and floral to deeply savoury and unexpectedly complex.

The result? Cocktails that challenge expectations and tell stories far beyond the glass.

Four Cocktails Worth Crossing London For

The East-Meets-West Martinez

At Bar Lotus in Kingsland Road, a classic Martinez receives a fascinating makeover thanks to a house vermouth infused with traditional Chinese medicinal botanicals.

The result is herbal, complex, and deeply layered. A cocktail that feels simultaneously familiar and entirely new.

The Citrus Ritual

At Opium Chinatown, bartenders elevate a gin sour with yuzu, salted lemon cordial, and freshly grated Buddha’s Hand, releasing fragrant citrus oils tableside for a sensory experience that feels almost theatrical.

Korea’s Five-Flavour Wonder

Lucy Wong’s Omija Tea Collins showcases one of Korea’s most intriguing ingredients: the omija berry, famed for delivering sweet, sour, salty, bitter and spicy notes simultaneously.

A Negroni Reimagined

Current Bartender of the Year Sam Page brings his signature creativity to Sexy Fish with a Pomelo Negroni featuring shiso distillate and sansho peppercorns, creating a cocktail that’s bright, aromatic, and unmistakably Asian in influence.

The Hidden Gems You’ll Discover Along the Way

While luxury destinations such as GONG Bar at Sangri-La The Shard, Nobu, and Sexy Fish are featured prominently, one of the festival’s biggest draws is its ability to uncover London’s lesser-known treasures.

Guests can find themselves sipping cocktails beneath a Stoke Newington barbershop at As Above So Below, exploring London’s first Malaysian speakeasy at 19FiftySeven, or discovering intimate neighbourhood bars that rarely appear on traditional tourist itineraries.

It’s exactly the kind of insider access that London cocktail lovers crave.

Why Asian Flavours Are Having A Moment

For years, London’s bartenders have borrowed inspiration from Asian cuisines, but often only scratching the surface. Taste the Orient feels different.

Rather than using ingredients as exotic garnish, the festival explores traditions, techniques, and stories behind them. It’s a reflection of a wider movement within the drinks industry, where authenticity, provenance, and cultural exchange are becoming just as important as presentation.

The Orientalist Spirits itself was born from a 6,000-mile journey across Asia, sourcing botanicals, grains and flavour traditions from across the continent. Taste the Orient translates that philosophy into an immersive city-wide experience.

More Than a Festival – A Preview of Cocktail Culture’s Future

The most exciting cocktail trends often emerge from curiosity. Whether it’s the rise of savoury martinis, the growing popularity of Asian spirits, or bartenders embracing ingredients once considered impossible to mix with, London’s drinks scene has never been more adventurous.

Taste the Orient captures that spirit so well.

It isn’t simply about drinking cocktails; it’s about discovering how flavour, culture, and storytelling can collide in a glass.

For London Cocktail Week devotees, it offers a fascinating glimpse into where cocktail culture is heading next. As for everyone else, it’s an excuse to spend a week exploring some of the city’s best bars while tasting ingredients they’ve probably never encountered before.

Not a bad way to spend a June evening.

To discover more, click HERE

All images courtesy of: London Cocktail Week & The Orientalist Spirits.