What is determined as the “World’s Best Bar” may mean something different for every person. For some, it’s the creativity in how the drink is created, or the ambiance that makes or breaks the watering hole. For others, it can be a matter of who the person is behind all the beatiful concoctions served especially. Needless to say, from inns and lounges from New York to bars in Sydney, some places can make a great itinerary for the most enthusiastic cocktail connoisseurs on its own. 

There are three things we know about the Langham: (1) Lady Gaga stays here, (2) the doormen can magically hail a cab for you within a minute, (3) it has the best cocktail bar in the world. A landmark hotel located on Regent Street in London, The Artesian at the Langham Hotel has snatched back the title for World’s Best Bar. It’s menu attracting much of the credit, it succesfully blends modern innovation with classic reverence, each beautifully designed that it justifies its as-luxury price tag.

Among other drinks, order the Langham Cobbler for a blench of lychee and aged sake, or Club Netherlands with tongue-tingling floral botanicals and its bespoke syrup, and you can bet that each comes with complete with glorious garnishes that some say take hours to prepare beforehand. Combined with a charming and warm staff with unrelenting exhibition of courtesy, it definitely makes it a deserving winner.

Starting off as a construction laborer who was bartending part-time, one visit to the most famous bar in the area changed his life forever. Within a month, he quit his job and began working to pursue his dream to be part of that world. Now, he is owner of The Lamp Bar in Nara, Japan, Michito Kaneko defeated 54 of the world’s best mixologists and was crowned the 2015 Diageo Reserve World Class Bartender of the Year, one of the highest honors that can be bestowed in the industry.

Growing up in fa mily of ceramic artists high up in the mountains of the City of Nara, nature, art, aesthetic, beauty and craftmanship was what can be naturally expected from him. The kind of precision his grandtaher might have taken when crafting a ceramic piece, Michito is always able to deliver when it mattered.

Drink at one of New York’s finest at PDT, New York. A bar’s entrance worthy of praise, night goers are bound to chatter with excitement by how interesting it can be to access PDT through a secret wall in a phone booth next door to Crif Dogs hotdog shop. The idea that one can enter such a sophisticated sipping den via a grungy hangout are the stuff around the speakeasy theme, so fair play. Exposed brickword, gleaming bar tops and tasteful dark wood ceilings are bound to impress. The reputation of the cocktail menu is also made splendid by the bar’s owner, Jim Meehan. We won’t say much more – try and find the place and see for yourself!

When Alex Kratena took over as head bartender, he made the unusual purchase of a slushy machine. But it was part of a maxim that steered his entire bartending career: “Always question everything”. One to never be accused of complacency, the tool became his secret weapon for a menu he dubbed “Twisted Disco”, earning him countless plaudits to reinventing the traditional five-star hotel experience to become the World’s Best Bar years later on. The Czech Republican changes the menu and its theme entirely every year, concocting drinks with a wide array of adventurous flavors.

For Kratena, a glass is “a stage, a way to communicate with a guest. Apart from being a vessel […], it’ll affect the way the drink will taste, how the liquid will hit your palette, how the aroma will form.” Featured: The “digidiva” cocktail, made of Absolut Elyx, cypress and Aqua di Cedro.

Another one of the bars ilsted in the World’s 50 Best Bars list, Palmer & Co is another that exudes the speakeasy vibes located in the lively city of Sydney, serving heaps of cocktails dedicated to Prohibition-era tipples. Found in a brick vaulted basement that would have been constructed around the 1850s! Sneak down a set of rickety metal stairs, and you’ll find yourself inside cavernous walls that transport you back to the 1920s. Have a taste of their ever-growing menus, designed to reflect flavors and senses of what’s best of the season.