Penicillin in Hong Kong has been named as the winner of the Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award by Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2021, which recognises bar that exemplifies the highest commitment to sustainability, ethical sourcing and the wider community.
Penicillin was opened in late 2020 Agung Prabowo and Roman Ghale – the founders of The Old Man Hong Kong, which won The Best Bar in Asia crown in 2019 – and their respective partners Laura Prabowo and Katy Ghale.
As the first sustainable bar in Hong Kong Penicillin uses the closed-loop cycle system, with four ‘champion elements’ to achieve that: a laboratory, main bar, kitchen and fermentation room.
Agung said: “With these four elements we are able to do recycling and upcycling at the same time. [We have a] cocktail inspired by a classic Gibson, and we are using upcycled Vermouth. We are basically collecting the oxidised wine, left over wine and we add local botanical and we serve with Ketel One, stir for a few seconds and serve in the rocks glass with ice and garnish with fermented pickled cabbage.”
Penicillin offers cocktails made using locally sourced ingredients that are obtained through foraging and from local farmers and suppliers. The bar also places huge emphasis on repurposing and recycling ingredients, using commonly discarded coconut bark and used tea leaves as well as the oxidised wine in its concoctions.
Through the use of the fermentation room, the team ensures that previously discarded off-cuts from the food menu can be upcycled to use as garnishes on the cocktail list.
Agung added: “We feel extremely happy and honoured to receive this award – Penicillin is still very young so we were not expecting to win but it means a lot to us. We see this award as a responsibility to be a pioneer in the industry – to influence other bars to join hands with us to protect our planet.
“We feel encouraged to be recognised for our efforts, and it makes us want to work even harder to ensure sustainability is at the heart of every aspect of our daily operations.”
Penicillin’s sustainable mission also flows through the design of the bar itself, with ceramics are made from 50 per cent recycled plaster and rustic table tops fabricated by HK Timber Bank, using nine different handpicked trees salvaged from Hong Kong’s infamous typhoons.
One of Penicillin’s latest initiatives is its ‘One Penicillin, One Tree’ cocktail. For every cocktail sold, one Mallotus Muticus tree is planted in the endangered Kalimantan rainforest in Borneo, Indonesia. Boasting a lifespan of more than 200 years, each tree is said to be able to eliminate 4,400kg of carbon dioxide, equivalent to 8,000 single-use glass spirit bottles.
Mark Sansom, Content Editor for Asia’s 50 Best Bars, said: “We are pleased to congratulate Penicillin on winning this year’s Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award. The team thoroughly deserve this recognition for their comprehensive and varied sustainability efforts – from supporting the local economy, instigating Hong Kong’s first closed-loop bar programme and getting involved in reforestation projects via their ‘One Penicillin, One Tree’ initiative.”
Bob Nolet, 11th-generation family owner and Master Distiller for Ketel One Vodka, added: “I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate Penicillin on winning this year’s Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award. Community is at the heart of everything we do at our family distillery – we really do believe in doing and making things better for our community. We want to recognise the best bars that are shaping the future of our industry with the best practices in sustainability, inspiring thousands of bars around the world to create a positive impact in their local communities.”
And in terms of sustainability tips for other bars, Agung said: “The message for the bartender community is, just be mindful and get to know the real meaning of sustainability, because sustainability is a big thing here in the world as well as in our industry.
“Sometimes a big idea makes a big difference and that makes us help the world.”
The Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award was introduced to Asia’s 50 Best Bars for the first time in 2018, with Potato Head Beach Club in Bali, Indonesia named the inaugural winner. In 2019 and 2020, Kuala Lumpur’s Bar Trigona won the award.
