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A speakeasy-style homage to the symbiotic beehive, Taipei’s Nest by Pun took home the Siete Misterios Best Cocktail Menu Award as part of Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2024. The team behind the drinks programme outline the bar’s buzz-worthy line-up of libations
Follow the golden bumble bees and honeycomb-shaped lighting down a dimly lit staircase from sister-bar Pun, found off a downtown Taipei backstreet, and you’ll arrive at a token-operated door that opens into Nest by Pun.
Boasting an apian canopy of golden, hexagon-imprinted organic wood pulp set against an onyx backdrop (designed by local artist Kang Li Sheng in partnership with Daniel Hu Interiors), the immersive space parallels the inside of a beehive, replete with gently pulsing lights timed to the bar’s zen, rainstorm-inspired music.
“We chose the bee to represent the bar because it encapsulates the essence of what we stand for – creativity, craftsmanship and a sense of community – highlighting the intricate and thoughtful nature of our work,” says Nest by Pun’s head bartender House Fang.
The bar’s name, itself a pun, plays off the onomatopoeic local dialect pronunciation of ‘very fragrant’ (pang gong gong) and ‘bumble bee’ (pang). Inside the bar, the parallels continue as the team serves drinks with worker bee-like speed and precision from two six-seater bars.
The interior of Nest by Pun is designed to look like a beehive
Like a beehive, the now officially lauded drinks programme reflects both symmetry and collaboration. The hexagon-shaped flipbook menu encompasses 10 cocktail classifications – sour, clarified milk punch, highball, Collins, tiki, spirit-forward, mocktail and so on. From this, guests choose their preferred drink style before selecting its execution via a second menu that shows two different approaches.
When it comes to cocktail making, in place of centrifugal clarification or rotary distillation, the team chooses traditional methods of infusion and blending. As a result, the back bar is akin to an apothecary rather than a science lab, with emphasis placed on bridging time-honoured means with contemporary cocktail tastes.
Discover more with a closer look at three seminal categories from Nest by Pun’s award-winning menu.
The tiki
Traversing global dissemination history, the tiki drinks on the menu are rooted in the stories of the spice trade of the East and the moral code-defining parables of the West.
Mason Zheng and House Fang collected Nest by Pun's trophy on stage in Hong Kong
The King of Clubs cocktail is inspired by the tale of Alexander the Great’s conquest across the Middle East to India. Peated Scotch evokes the fire and war that followed in his wake, while a homemade East Side Falernum, spiced with Middle Eastern black lime, Indian masala chai and northern Asian burdock, traces his route.
“Each of our cocktails include at least one wholly homemade component connected not only in cocktail creation but also in historical significance,” adds Mason Zheng, the bar’s cocktail research and development manager.
On the opposite hemisphere, The Cricket’s Song is based on the Grimm Brothers fable, The Ant and the Cricket. The moral of the story is to always prepare for the future, be helpful to others, and share, so that in difficult times, one does not have to beg, like the ant in the tale.
The cocktail features mastiha liqueur, also known as the tears of Chios, made from a resin obtained from the mastic tree. This piney, herbal spirit is shaken with bison grass vodka and a warming piment distillate. Served with yuzu granita – a fruit that symbolises winter in Japanese culture – the cocktail reflects opposing seasons through its ingredients.
The clarified milk punch
The pair of cocktails under clarified milk punch demonstrate the collision of legacy heritage spirits with contemporary cocktail trends.
The Baby Metal cocktail blends whisky with Taiwanese spirit, pu-erh tea and peanut syrup (Image: Sophie Steiner)
On one side of the spectrum there’s Metal Baby – booze-forward with smoky whisky and Taiwanese gaoliang jiu (fermented sorghum alcohol) – rounded by musky pu-erh tea and a treacly roasted and caramelised peanut syrup.
The other side features the beach-friendly clarified Vanilla Colada, a tropical Jamaican overproof rum and falernum mix finished with passion fruit in place of lime. It’s a heart-on-the-sleeve love song to the coveted local Taiwanese pineapple – the most famed species in the region.
“Each cocktail is like a high-definition picture; you can appreciate it from a distance or zoom in to experience its layered beauty in both appearance and backstory,” bar manager Jint Huang explains.
The mocktail 
Tales by Nest caters to the growing demand for no and low-alcohol concoctions (Image: Sophie Steiner)
An equally viable option for those imbibing or abstaining, the mocktails of Tales by Nest demonstrate how even zero-proof cocktails can navigate the full gamut of old fashioneds to sours with unbridled flavour.
Split between the Southern Star (a salted star fruit juice and robust cold brew coffee sip that zings with liquorice syrup) and the effervescent Teardrop (made with fermented green mango pickle juice, clarified coconut and rose water), the eyebrow-raising omission of alcohol is undetectable (and unmissed) by even the most seasoned drinkers.
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