South East Asia: heritage & innovation – Mr Lyan Studio’s Anna Sulan Masing explores the region’s exploding cocktail scene

In DRIP magazine’s issue 2, published April 2026, Studio’s Brand Strategy Director, Anna Sulan Masing, explores a region she grew up in and knows well. South East Asia has a vibrant tapestry of bars and she looks at how history, traditions and ingredients continue to shape the context of the region’s drinking culture and why it is now one of the most exciting areas in the world for bars.

She writes: “South East Asia has a rich and complex history of trade, migration, and colonialism. But it is important not to simplify the region to a past, as that strips the land, people, and communities of their own stories. This bar scene has been developing a cocktail canon away from the Western lens and making its own rules, steadily making a mark on the world stage. Native in Singapore have led the way highlighting local ingredients, and Backdoor Bodega in Penang won the 50 Best Bars’ best bar menu award in 2025. Veteran Malaysian bartender Shawn Chong, who currently runs Bar Mizukami, explains ‘South East Asia does not have a cocktail culture that is decades old and so, we are not bound by traditions that dictate how things should be done.’ 

Viewing this bar scene as a region, and not along national lines, allow us to see relationships, interweaving of narratives, and contrasts alongside similarities; this isn’t about homogenising but rather about highlighting connectivity.”

Read the full piece here in Drip Magazine.