Cocktail stories: Get the MSG?, Cat Bite Club
Singapore’s Cat Bite Club takes inspiration from savoury cocktails like the Michelada and the Bloody Mary, but adds an Asian twist.
*This feature was originally published in the January 2026 issue of The Spirits Business magazine.
It’s no longer just the rim on a Margarita – bartenders around the world are waking up to the importance of salt in cocktails. As with seasoning food, a small dash of saline can sharpen flavours, enhance texture and bring a drink into better balance.
At Singapore’s Cat Bite Club, the team members are innovating with other ways of seasoning their cocktails, including with the much-maligned monosodium glutamate (MSG). In the West, the ingredient has developed an undeserved reputation for causing headaches or post-takeaway discomfort, despite a lack of evidence to support those claims.
“MSG is delicious,” says co-owner Jesse Vida. “Hopefully, it will draw interest. In Asia, it’s such a staple culinary ingredient – I think if guests are travelling, they should be open to trying things.”
Here, MSG is not merely a finishing flourish but the conceptual starting point, as evidenced by the cocktail’s punny name. As with many drinks at Cat Bite Club, the cocktail is a delicate balance of Mexican and Asian flavours.
Vida explains that the idea was to create a savoury and spicy cocktail inspired by a Michelada, drawing on the Mexican cocktail’s use of beer, citrus, spice and salt. The resulting cocktail also takes influence from another classic, the Bloody Mary – but with the tomato dial turned to 100.
A Szechuan peppercorn-infused tomato cordial delivers a numbing, aromatic heat, while the mezcal is given additional weight and complexity through a chilli-oil fat wash. The drink is finished with a float of Asahi, swapping the familiar Corona or Modelo for a distinctly Asian counterpoint – a final detail that neatly reinforces the cocktail’s cross-cultural identity.
Get the MSG?
Ingredients
1 dash 20% MSG
2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
1 dash Celery bitters
15ml 2:1 Citrus (two parts fresh lemon juice, one part fresh
lime juice)
30ml Szechuan peppercorn tomato cordial*
2.5ml Massenez Peach Liqueur
7.5ml Cynar
35ml Chilli oil fat-washed Machetazo Cupreata mezcal
Garnish: Mini Asahi float and 3 drops sun-dried tomato oil
Method
Put all ingredients in a shaker and whip shake (a short shake with less ice).
*Szechuan peppercorn tomato cordial (150ml yield)
10g Szechuan peppercorn
200g Cherry tomatoes
100g Sugar
Blend the cherry tomatoes and Szechuan peppercorns, add sugar and cook down in a pot.
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