About
About and method
Who made this, how it was researched, and where AI was used.
The project
Asia Pours is a printed booklet and this companion site. The recipes were specified and researched by the author.
The booklet argues that a cocktail is the smallest usable unit of cultural fluency. Three Asian ingredients, ube, yuzu and matcha, each illustrate a different supply chain governance pattern that matters to anyone doing business in Asia: origin without control, origin as strategy, and origin under pressure. A fourth pattern, that color is a distribution strategy, ties the three together. This site collects the recipes, the argument and the sourcing behind both.
The author
Simon Engel is a cocktail enthusiast who trained in bartending at the European Bartender School in Cape Town and holds a WSET Level 2 in Wine. He is part of the Gen A fellowship cohort 2026 at Asia Society Switzerland.
With this project he puts those skills to practical use: a guide for executives who want something worth sharing at the table.
A note on the recipes
Every measure is printed as specified. Where a build carries a technical tension, whether color chemistry, dilution, cost or body, it is stated openly in the recipe's closing note, an adjustment where the drink can be changed to taste and a technical note where it cannot, rather than quietly corrected.
AI disclosure
Research, drafting and layout were developed with AI assistance under the author's editorial direction. All tasting observations are Simon's own. The AI generated images are illustrative interpretations. Some captions say so and some do not, so the statement that covers all of them is the one below rather than the one under any particular picture.
The cocktail and origin photography in the booklet and on this site was generated to a specified art direction. None of the people, places or objects pictured are real. The bar and city photographs on the bars page are real images and carry their photographer and license instead.
Every factual claim traces to a named source, listed on the sources page. Where sources conflicted, the more conservative figure was used. The analogies drawn to wider trade patterns are editorial interpretation, not sourced claims.
Research standard
Production, trade and export figures come from national statistics offices and trade authorities. Regulatory and treaty statements come from official EU and Japanese instruments. Botanical and historical claims come from peer reviewed research and institutional collections. Market sizes are commercial estimates and retail prices are observed listings, both dated August 2026.
The booklet
The site draws on the full printed booklet, which includes additional figures and sourcing detail not reproduced here.
It is free, and it is sent by email. Leave an address on the booklet page and it follows once you confirm.