Hong Kong is a difficult city to pin down. It moves fast, constantly reinvents itself and keeps pushing its skyline higher, yet remains stubbornly loyal to its daily rituals, markets, craftsmanship, street food and the urban memories that continue to resist transformation. It is precisely from this tension between ultramodernity and local identity that Echoes was born, the new cocktail menu at DarkSide, the bar at Rosewood Hong Kong, created by Bar Manager Marco Maiorano.
The Culture That Inspires Echoes
“Hong Kong is an incredibly international metropolis, but at the same time it remains deeply faithful to its cultural identity. Walking through the markets, I started collecting impressions that eventually became cocktails,” says Maiorano. Launching in June, the menu is built around three pillars — Craft, Taste and Culture — reflecting Rosewood’s broader philosophy of creating experiences rooted in local culture. “The idea is always to start from the culture of the place,” Maiorano explains.
Craft and Hong Kong’s Artisanal Heritage
The Craft section focuses on Hong Kong’s artisanal heritage. Chic & Candied twists the Margarita through pomelo, one of the city’s most recognisable citrus fruits, used in its entirety: juice, peel, leaves and albedo. The presentation adds another layer, with an arm band holding the garnish in place while the fruit’s white pith is turned into candy. All Eyes on Me pays tribute to one of Hong Kong’s most recognisable visual signatures. Developed in collaboration with a local artisan, the drink is served with a custom LED coaster that lights an engraved block of ice from below. “Through the neon light, the ice almost looks like it is rising out of the glass.” More theatrical is The Dragon’s Beat, inspired by the Dragon Dance associated with Lunar New Year and served in a custom ceramic vessel shaped like a dragon mask.
Taste and the Food Memories Behind Echoes
With Taste, DarkSide turns to Hong Kong’s everyday food culture. Just Three Minutes takes inspiration from instant noodles, the city’s quintessential late-night comfort food. “It is the classic after-party comfort food: you get home, and in three minutes you have something ready.” The cocktail is a shrimp noodle punch that borrows the structure of a Vesper Martini, though in a softer, gentler form, served in a white-and-blue bowl with two breadsticks standing in for chopsticks.
Hong Kong’s tea culture appears in a second drink inspired by the pineapple bun, served on tap with nitrogen rather than CO2 to create a creamy texture. “Traditional Hong Kong tea often includes condensed milk, so we wanted to recreate that same creaminess.” More unexpected is You’re Soy Cool, which takes the Piña Colada in a different direction through a soy sauce caramel that introduces salinity into the tropical sweetness.
Culture: Urban Traditions Turned Into Cocktails
The Culture section explores the city’s urban heritage. The tradition of snake wine, the spirit aged with a snake inside the bottle, becomes a Martini built with snake fruit and served in a custom vessel featuring a ceramic snake. “Obviously, we are not using a real snake,” Maiorano says with a laugh. Another cocktail looks to roasted chestnuts, a winter tradition that struck him as unexpectedly familiar. “What struck me is how much it feels like something we would recognise as our own in Italy.” Finally, Catch It If You Can revisits an almost vanished tradition: street vendors who once threw fermented olives and sweets directly up to apartment windows. “Today, with the skyline, it would be impossible, but in Temple Street you can still find someone keeping that memory alive.”
Across its pages, Echoes becomes a liquid archive of Hong Kong. “It is a city that never sleeps, with the energy of New York or London.” But what continues to set it apart for Maiorano is something else entirely. “Despite all the ultramodern development, you still find artisans working in an authentic way. That connection to tradition is something that feels very close to me as an Italian.”
Tratto dal magazine cartaceo di Coqtail – for fine drinkers. Ordinalo qui
Images courtesy Rosewood Hong Kong
