{"id":72933,"date":"2026-07-30T20:38:57","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T12:38:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=72933"},"modified":"2026-07-30T20:38:57","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T12:38:57","slug":"drink-in-focus-trinidad-sour-at-bar-tincture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=72933","title":{"rendered":"Drink in Focus: Trinidad Sour at Bar Tincture"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\u201cTraditionally, bitters are used only [in] small dashes for seasoning,\u201d says Bone Cheng, founder of Bar Tincture, the Ginza-style cocktail establishment<\/span> that opened in Hong Kong in April. \u201cBut the Trinidad Sour elevates bitters to the main spirit. This inversion concept is very bold \u2013 it challenges the conventional definition of a base spirit and proves that bitters can form the soul of a complete cocktail.\u201d<\/div>\n
This statement encapsulates his mission for Bar Tincture, one of the few bars in Hong Kong to make bitters a central theme \u2013 even going so far as to make them in-house and use them as a base for signatures. Bitters are almost always relegated to a finishing touch, whether it\u2019s a few dashes of Angostura or orange bitters to an Old Fashioned<\/span>, or a choice dab of Peychaud\u2019s to give a Sazerac an aromatic lift. Amaro \u2013 Italian for \u201cbitter\u201d \u2013 often plays a more prominent role in cocktails featuring spirits such as Amaro Montenegro or Fernet-Branca, but its flavour is more of an acquired taste.<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe Trinidad Sour elevates bitters to the main spirit,\u201d explains Bone Cheng, founder of Bar Tincture. Photo: Jocelyn Tam<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Cheng\u2019s move is a bold one, so it stands to reason that the concept lives or dies on whether he can pull off one of the few modern classics to showcase bitters in a new way: the Trinidad Sour. According to Cheng, the drink was created around 2009 by Giuseppe Gonz\u00e1lez at the Clover Club in New York, using Angostura bitters<\/span> as the base.<\/div>\n

\u201cWhen designing the Homemade Style [red aperitivo] series for Bar Tincture,\u201d Cheng says, \u201cwe wanted to interpret this drink using our own house-made bitters. Our bitters are made using a variety of spices, barks and herbs via sous vide. After filtering, they are blended with five to six house-made tinctures for seasoning, followed by short-term ageing to allow the flavours to integrate fully.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bar Tincture\u2019s Trinidad Sour is made with rye whiskey, lime and orgeat. Photo: Jocelyn Tam<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The specific base for the Trinidad Sour emphasised spices and flavours like cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and \u201cgentian bitterness\u201d (a sharp herbal bitterness). The goal was to \u201cmake it stronger and more layered than traditional Angostura, with reduced sugar, while staying true to the botanical essence concept we want to express\u201d.<\/p>\n

On the night, these bitters are shaken with rye whiskey, lime and orgeat. \u201cThe almond sweetness and subtle floral notes of the orgeat,\u201d he explains, \u201ceffectively neutralise the bitterness and spiciness of the bitters while adding body and roundness. The acidity from fresh lime provides necessary brightness and freshness, preventing the drink from feeling too heavy or medicinal. Together they create a perfect \u2018bitter-sweet-sour\u2019 triangular balance.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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\u201cTraditionally, bitters are used only [in] small dashes for seasoning,\u201d says Bone Cheng, founder of Bar Tincture, the Ginza-style cocktail establishment that opened in Hong…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[2917,26,2051,9448,27441,27440],"class_list":["post-72933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-bar","tag-drink","tag-focus","tag-sour","tag-tincture","tag-trinidad","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}