Bar review: Jigger and Pony new menu Smash, is smashingly good
Singapore's top bar is serving the best and only Gin Ramoz the city has to offer.
Smash—Jigger and Pony's new menu is out, and it is smashing.
This year, the team has returned to classics—some reinvented, others reimagined—and produced yet another menuzine, SMASH, listing 20+ cocktails you can smash or thoughtfully reflect on.
Taking some bold strides, they’ve added the bartender's bugbear, Ramos Gin, to the menu—complete with four defined layers and five textures with port and champagne.
In the Made in Singapore section, the mixologists re-engineered the Singapore Sling as a clear, light, defined drink without any sugar-heavy cordials. I’ve never been a fan of the sling ( apologies, Singapore), but I can get behind this one.
The pink-tinged Lycheetini is instagrammable and smells of just-ripe lychee flesh. It’s spirited, perfumed, and ever-so-lightly sweet with a long finish. The concentrated concoction calls for Bombay Sapphire premium cru gin, Japanese sweet potato spirit, shochu and a custom lychee fruit distillate.
The Spicy Margarita, on the other hand, veered towards a whole new world of savoury. It's not how I like my margarita, spicy or not, but I’ll take the agave lollipop garnish with the salt flakes any day, Uno Jang.
From the no-low section, Apple and Cedar is refreshing and textured, which is just what you want in your no-alcohol drink.
Above all, the bar has kept the price at S$28 ++ (non-alcoholic drinks are S$22 ++), which is commendable. If memory serves me right, the first menu I sampled in 2021 was priced at $25++. Elsewhere (read: at bars that are not even among Singapore’s top bars), I’ve spotted $30 to $40++ drinks at new bars, which throws me off, but I’ll save that rhetoric for later.
For now, congratulations to the Jigger and Pony team (No. 3 on Asia’s 50 Best Bars List 2024) on an excellent menu launch and for celebrating 12 years of crafting cocktails.