The Asia's 50 Best Bars Academy is the mechanism used to create the Asia's 50 Best Bars list. None of the employees of the organiser or any of the sponsors associated with the awards, including the main sponsor, has any influence over the results.
The Academy comprises 265 members, each selected for their expert opinion of Asia's bar scene. To create the Academy, and give it a fair representation of the continent's bar landscape, we divide the area into 7 voting regions.
The five Asia's 50 Best Bars Academy Chairs each select a voting panel, updated annually, ensuring a balanced selection of drink writers and educators, bartenders and cocktail aficionados.
Learn more about how the voting works
Academy Chair for: Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau
Ng has managed bars, hotels and brands for over 15 years. A Hong Kong native, he was educated in Switzerland, before returning home via the UK and the US in 2008. In 2009, he supervised the highly regarded MO Bar in in Hong Kong, winning several awards at global bartending competitions. He followed this with a stint at leading whiskey brand, Michters, as Asia brand ambassador, before converting to magazine editorial, joining Tasting Kitchen, as director of wines and spirits.
Academy Chair for: Japan
Based in Tokyo since 1998, Coldicott is the author of Tokyo Cocktails and co-founder of artisanal sake exporters KuroKura. He has been a drink columnist for The Japan Times and CNN, an editor of Whisky Magazine Japan and Eat magazine, a judge for the World Whisky Awards, and a writer of guide books for Wallpaper* and Time Out.
Academy Chair for: India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives
Blah is the founder of The Dram Attic, a spirits and cocktail platform highlighting key bars and talent across the globe. She has spent the last decade discovering the world of cocktails through extensive travel, chronicling the evolution of the drinks industry from both sides of the bar, paying particular attention to guest experience and creativity. She has worked in several aspects of the F&B business, from operations to creative as well as global sales of craft spirits.
Southeast Asia & Korea