JON LEE

Tippling Club

Jon Lee was just three months into his bartending career when he made it to the top six of the Singapore leg of the Bacardi Legacy competition in 2017. Vida Rica, the cocktail he made, combined his background as a chef with unique ingredients such as dark rum, egg yolk, housemade salted caramel and a garnish of honeycomb.

It also helped that Lee’s mentors were Joe

Schofield and Ryan Clift at Tippling Club, which is currently ranked 11th on the Asia’s 50 Best Bars list.

Though Lee didn’t end up as the champion of that event, this year he emerged as the winner of the Johnnie Walker Gold Singapore Cocktail Competition, themed “the search for Singapore’s next iconic cocktail”. He beat out six other bartenders with his creation, dubbed Singapore’s Encore, which is a fruity tipple of Johnnie Walker Gold

Label, “rojak cordial”, tonic and a cucumber garnish. Always a service-oriented bartender, Lee credits his friends and family for his growth as a bartender. “They always give me constructive feedback to enable me to develop and grow. I have learned so much just from surrounding myself with positive people,” he says.

“Have fun! This is the best way to get people talking and enjoying your drinks.”

TAKE A SIP: “Whisky highballs are my favourite drinks; just with a touch of lemon zest, it’s simple and elegant. For the competition, Singapore’s Encore was inspired by rojak—a mix of eclectic ingredients that work perfectly in harmony with each other. The rojak cordial that I created brings out the vanilla and dark fruit flavour notes of the Johnnie Walker Gold Label.”