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Meet the semi-finalists sustainable creations turning overlooked ingredients into cocktails.
Behind the drinks are nine bartenders, three mentors and one question: who will take the next step towards Cognac?
What can you do with used coffee grounds after the morning rush? Or the stout left at the bottom of a keg? How about mango peels, cauliflower stems and yesterday’s pastry?
Nine bartenders have some unexpectedly delicious answers.
They are the country’s semi-finalists in Hennessy MyWay 2026, a global bartending competition built around creativity, ritual and more conscious ways of working behind the bar. Each bartender began with Hennessy V.S.O.P. and a challenge: create a drink that is not only memorable, but also considers what gets used, what gets discarded and whether an ingredient might have a second life.
Sustainability carries the most weight in the competition, drinkability and ritual serve receive equal points, while product knowledge and appearance compliment the overall experience. A sustainable cocktail still has to be a good drink. It must make sense in the glass, and the story cannot be doing all the work.
Though Malaysia’s top nine have approached that challenge from very different directions.
Look at the ingredients in a different way
From left: Lee Ai Cxing - Crème & Glacé; Camen Chung - Second Life and Hong Xiang - Limonata Cream.
At The Nest Cocktail Bar in Penang, Lee Ai Cxing created Crème & Glacé using watermelon, beetroot and rice. These highly perishable ingredients are preserved and reworked into elements of the drink and its presentation. The idea is practical and the combination also shows how preservation can lead a bartender somewhere less predictable.
Camen Chung of CONTI’ in Kuala Lumpur gives familiar bar leftovers a new purpose in Second Life. Cold brew coffee and leftover stout are repurposed into an elegant cocktail based on the belief that every ingredient deserves another chance. It is also a useful reminder that sustainable bartending begins by looking at what is already within reach.
Coffee makes another appearance in Loo Hong Xiang’s Hennessy Limonata Cream. The WPS (Wood People Social) bartender from Selangor transforms used coffee grounds and lemon soda into a refreshing highball. What might normally be emptied into a bin becomes one of the drink’s defining components.
Local produce leads the way in Harvest No.1 by Ho Yan Ching of Haiiro Usagi in Johor. Gula Melaka, guava and calamansi give the cocktail an immediate Malaysian vocabulary. By sourcing locally and preparing the ingredients mindfully, Ho connects environmental considerations with flavours guests already recognise.
Nothing goes to waste in Unlearn the Unlove by Fil Tan of Juniper & Vins in Penang. Fil works with the entire mango, from peel to seed, using techniques including spherification and dehydration to present the fruit in several forms.
From left: Qing Yen - Veil & Crust, Richard - Henne-ci TEA and Yee Min - Yennessy.
For Seed to Spirit, Rendey Ray of Rhu Bar in Langkawi looked towards Borneo’s Mangga Wani. Every part of the fruit is used before its seed is returned to the earth. The act completes the drink’s story, connecting the ingredient, the serve and the possibility of renewal.
The ingredients in Veil & Crust may raise a few eyebrows. Ong Qin Yen, also from The Nest Cocktail Bar, brings together cauliflower stems, leftover pastry and chicken liver. Rather than treating them as novelties, Ong uses technical precision to turn them into a refined serve. It is the sort of combination that asks the guest to trust the bartender and then rewards that trust.
At Rimbar in Kuala Lumpur, Richard Samuel combines figs, tea and saffron with Hennessy V.S.O.P. in Henne-ciTEA. Overlooked ingredients are turned into both flavour and presentation, allowing the sustainability idea to extend beyond the liquid.
Completing the nine is Yee Min Lui of Cabinet 8 KL with Yennessy. At the heart of the cocktail is coconut, a familiar ingredient in Malaysian cooking, enjoyed as a cooling drink or transformed through fermentation. Yee draws on this versatility to bring storytelling, technique and sustainability in one constructed serve.
From left: Fil Tan - Juniper & Vins, Rendey Ray - Rhu Bar and Ho Yan Ching - Haiiro Usagi.
Before the competition comes the conversation
A bartender may compete alone at the station, but ideas rarely develop in isolation.
This year, the Malaysian semi-finalists have been guided by three industry mentors: The Nest Cocktail Bar founder and Hennessy MyWay 2025 Malaysia Champion Oh Chong Hau; Bar None founder and returning mentor Arsenio Ash; and Arya Dharmayasa, Bar Manager of L’Atelier by Cyril Kongo at Kempinski Bali and Hennessy MyWay 2025 Indonesia Champion.
All three understand what it takes to move an idea from an entry form to a competition stage. Their role is not simply to correct recipes. Mentorship can help a bartender question whether a technique is necessary, make a sustainability claim more rigorous, sharpen a presentation or find a clearer way to communicate a personal story.
That guidance continued through intimate masterclasses and public guest shifts in Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Johor. Guests could meet the semi-finalists, try their cocktails and vote for a favourite at each stop. The winning bartender received 10 additional points going into the semi-final.
Ho Yan Ching won the Penang guest shift at The Nest Cocktail Bar. Yee Min Lui took the public vote at Bar None in Kuala Lumpur, while Lee Ai Cxing emerged as the Johor guestshift winner at Haiiro Usagi.
The extra points may matter, but the guest shifts served another purpose. They moved the drinks out of a judging room and placed them in front of the people cocktails are ultimately made for. A guest does not drink a scoring sheet. They respond to flavour, hospitality and the feeling that accompanies a serve.
Hennessy MyWay 2026b mentors: (From left) Chong Hau, Ash and Arya.
A new drink and a place in the next round
The semi-finals on 10 August brings together 14 bartenders from Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Each competitor must present a new Hennessy V.S.O.P. creation, distinct from the cocktail that secured their place in the competition.
Six bartenders will advance to the Regional Finals on 12 August. From there, the competition will determine who continues towards the Hennessy MyWay Global Finals in Cognac, France.
Nine Malaysian bartenders have already demonstrated that “waste” is often just an ingredient waiting for a better idea. The next question is which of them can do it all again.
Visit Hennesy MyWay website for more information.
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