You hear it all the time: young people don’t drink alcohol anymore. But most are forgetting that a lot of Gen X-ers and millennials don’t drink for various reasons too: religion, health, allergies, or simply intolerance. Yet, for decades, they have suffered through it: having Coca-Cola at the clubs, ordering a Shirley Temple when out at the bar with friends, or sipping on plain water while everyone else has a glass of wine. What if…there was a bar out there dedicated to just mocktails done well?
That bar exists. It’s TeetoTurtle. But it’s not really a bar—it’s a spot for sober mixology.
Located along the streets of Jalan Hang Kasturi just outside of the bus station in Pasar Seni, head up the wooden staircase at No. 62, and you’ll find yourself in a light-filled art gallery. Go past the curtains, and you’ll find TeetoTurtle: sober mixology, proudly alcohol-free. But in fact, this place almost never happened. It was originally going to be the late Karl Too’s new bar project, but he passed unexpectedly before the place could even begin to take shape. His former partner at Omakase + Appreciate, Shawn Chong, found the keys to this place and took up the project of creating something here alongside Too’s investors. “I didn’t think it was the right time to open another cocktail bar. Taxes were against us, and so I thought, why not do something that caters to the wider market?” Non-alcoholic cocktails were the answer.
Knowing Chong, though, he wouldn’t go in blind. He has, in fact, been experimenting with non-alcoholic cocktails in various ways and methods for close to a decade. When non-alcoholic spirits were in their infancy with the likes of Seedlip and Lyre “gin”, he had already begun experimenting with them, creating a full menu of drinks for a local Malay restaurant whose clientele could not have cocktails due to religious reasons. But these non-alcoholic spirits were priced the same as their alcoholic counterparts. Why would you drink a mocktail that was the same price as a cocktail?
Through trial and error, Chong decided that approaching mocktails with a mixology mindset was paramount. “We wanted to promote a more sophisticated way of drinking mocktails that’s different from other places: it’s not just syrup, soda, and a juice in a highball glass or a takeaway cup,” explained Chong. People who don’t drink alcohol would still drink from a wineglass, so it pushed him further to ask, ‘Can they create a whole experience around it?’ Thus, he came to this conclusion: providing a bar experience for non-alcoholic drinkers.
“So, now, you can actually sit at the bar and enjoy mocktails. The reasons for not drinking [alcohol] have changed for everyone, including myself—whether it’s because we’re driving, your family, or some other reasons,” Chong admitted. “[TeetoTurtle] could be a refuge or your regular place; a weekend hangout spot or for date nights. The reason why we operate from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. is that we want to be an after-meal spot. If you don’t want to go to a cafe or another restaurant in a shopping mall, you can come here. It’s the same for after dinner; if you don’t want to go to a dessert place, which tends to close earlier, you can come here too.”
A third place, for those who want carefully crafted drinks—the bar experience, without the alcohol. Safe to say, we don’t have many of those types of spots. But how do the drinks fare? We tried everything on the menu, and it tastes as good as a properly curated, well-researched cocktail menu—minus the debilitating effects of alcohol. The two mixologists in TeetoTurtle—Mheng and Naqib Najmi—were tasked to develop exact counterparts to replace base spirits typically used to build a cocktail. Think of a non-alcoholic “gin” and “whisky”. They were successful in their endeavour, creating a jamu- and pudina-based “spirit”. From there, creating the mocktails were easy enough. Our favourite had to be the Apple Pie Sour (RM28), a tart yet sweet mocktail with a velvety mouthfeel thanks to the aquafaba moonlighting as egg white foam (thus making it vegetarian). It’s also a fun drink thanks to the pie “lattice” design, made from cinnamon dusting, inspired by a classic whisky sour. For something reminiscent of a mezcal negroni, we’d recommend Houji Ember (RM28), a drink created with the jamu base, houjicha, and lapsang souchong tea. It’s smoky thanks to the tea, but also tastes fairly clean and light thanks to the tea combinations. Pair it with the tiramisu chocolate garnish for a different flavour experience.
Like any good cocktail menu, there should be variations between lighter drinks and fuller-bodied ones that are stirred rather than iced. The Rose Gold Spritz (RM28) is a refreshing one perfect for when you’ve come in to take shelter from the heat. With fruity, refreshing flavours of cranberry, elderflower, and lemon alongside a pudina base, this is something we’d slurp down instantaneously. The rest of the menu similarly provides enough variety to cater to a range of flavour profiles—we’d love to see them push the boundaries further in the future with savoury concoctions that are all the rage now in the cocktail world.
But when it comes down to it, would anyone really go to a mocktail bar? To that, we pitch this scenario: you don’t drink alcohol, you don’t want to have coffee after dinner, and you’re not a fan of desserts. A cafe doesn’t open till late, and you want to hang out somewhere nicer than a mamak. Where else is there to go?
Why, TeetoTurtle, of course.
All images taken on iPhone 16 Pro.
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