This week, we visited Union Bar & Grill on Yangon’s Strand Road to talk about a very important subject: cocktails.
The subject expert was Soe Zayar, Union’s bartender extraordinaire, drinks connoisseur and winner of the best bartender contest in Myanmar, which was started three years ago.
He was speaking days away from departing for Singapore, where he will test his skills against other mixologists in the region in the annual Asia-Pacific Bartender of the Year competition on July 25-27.
Born and raised in Yangon, the 29-year-old got interested in the craft after graduating from college in 2008. He was inspired by watching other seasoned bartenders work.
“I wanted to be like them. Cocktails are an art, which is very broad, and also I wanted to make creations,” he said. “I haven’t had proper training. I learned from experience.”
That experience includes stints working in bars overseas in Malaysia, Thailand, and most recently, Hong Kong.
“I met good mentors there,” he said.
Soe has been working at Union pretty much since it opened three years ago.
“For me, life as a bartender is really interesting and I am creating new things every time,” he said.
In 2015, Soe competed in the ASEAN bartender championship in Malaysia, but did not place. After winning the Myanmar competition this year, he was chosen to represent the country in Singapore at the Asia-Pacific event.
“I will try my best as a representative of Myanmar in this competition. I also want awards. If I won’t get awards, at least I can get experience,” he said.
Going slowly, he showed us how to make some of Union’s better-known cocktails.
From left to right in the following pic, there’s the Moscow mule, with vodka, fresh lime juice and homemade ginger beer. There’s the fancy gin & tonic, which includes long shavings of cucumber, thyme and dried fruit. And there’s his own creation, the “mi luv yuh,” an island-style cocktail derived from Captain Morgan’s rum, grenadine, lime juice, vanilla syrup, rhubarb bitters and two tiny hearts made from lemon peels as garnish.
The “mi luv yah” is the drink that helped him clinch the championship in Myanmar.
