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Food and Drinks
Lifestyle100 Top Tables

How Hope & Sesame is leading mainland China’s rise on Asia’s 50 Best Bars list

The Guangzhou bar and other venues in Shenzhen, Changsha, Shanghai, Chengdu and Beijing are driving the country’s booming mixology scene

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Hope & Sesame in Guangzhou took top spot on Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2026 list, as well as the Best Bar in Mainland China Award, at a ceremony in Macau on July 28. Photo: Handout
Josiah Ng
As Asia’s 50 Best Bars counted down the rankings at Wynn Palace in Macau on Tuesday, Hope & Sesame took home top honours, marking the first time a bar from mainland China topped the list, and ending a five-year stretch where just Hong Kong’s Coa or Bar Leone claimed the crown.

The Guangzhou bar (which also has a location in Shenzhen) leads something of a changing of the guard. Mainland Chinese representation has ballooned from three bars last year – Hope & Sesame, MO Bar Shenzhen and CMYK in Changsha – to seven among Asia’s 50 Best Bars this year, plus three more on Asia’s 51-100 extended list. Hong Kong is still one of the most represented territories – but only just, with eight venues on Asia’s 50 Best Bars and three on the extended list.

When we last considered the mixology scene in mainland China, it seemed that despite being one of the world’s leading drinks markets, the country struggled primarily with outreach and exposure for its home-grown talent. Now, bars across the map – including debuts from Shenzhen’s Obsidian at 10th, Shanghai’s Pony Up at 19th and Beijing’s Tiao at 50th – have made the list, ensuring their status as starting points for international travellers.
Outside Guangzhou’s Hope & Sesame, which topped the 2026 Asia’s 50 Best Bars list. Photo: Handout
Outside Guangzhou’s Hope & Sesame, which topped the 2026 Asia’s 50 Best Bars list. Photo: Handout
“If you go to any country, the driving force of cocktail drinking is the travellers,” says Ethan Liu, co-founder of CMYK. As Beijing, Shanghai and other tier-one cities draw international clientele, the domestic crowd turns to other corners of the country, such as Changsha, in search of something more homely and local.

Liu estimates that 90 per cent of his guests are in their early twenties and late thirties, with many travelling from first-tier cities and finding their way to CMYK through resources such as RedNote. Most of these guests – 70 to 80 per cent – are female and are looking for cocktails rather than baijiu.

“When they go out, you don’t see four or five girls get together, open a bottle of baijiu,” he says, noting that baijiu is more of a dinner and occasion drink. “They want to have some fun, try different flavours, take pictures.”

The interior of Changsha cocktail bar CMYK. Photo: Handout
The interior of Changsha cocktail bar CMYK. Photo: Handout

The data seems to support Liu’s numbers. The International Wine and Spirits Record is seeing a shift in demand towards hospitality and “on-trade” consumption at bars and bistros. Baijiu sales have fallen, while spirits and ready-to-drink mixes are on the rise as younger drinkers embrace casual drinking and older drinkers become more selective about what they buy.

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