Shanghai has exploded with fancy new cocktail bars and microbreweries in the past two years. So we asked beer experts Michael Jordan (of Boxing Cat Brewery), Cedric Bourlet (of Cheer’s In) and Leon Mickelson (of The BREW’s) to pair up with cocktail experts Sky Xu (of M1NT's), Christoffer Backman (of Waldorf Astoria’s Long Bar) and Adam Deverman (of the Apothecary). We asked questions to both sides and debated the future of Shanghai's drinking soul.

Meet the experts (from right to left), Christoffer Backman, Adam Deverman, Leon Mickelson and Cedric Bourlet

Is Shanghai a beer or cocktail city?

When asked whether Shanghai has more love for beer or cocktails, neither Michael Jordan of Boxing Cat Brewery nor M1NT's Sky Xu hesitate in their answer. “It’s a cocktail city,” says Xu. “Most Chinese people want to try different cocktails. Things have changed, our guests order cocktails more than beer.”

“Definitely a cocktail city,” agrees Jordan, “Beer has a lot more potential for growth than cocktails, but there's only a handful of great beer bars to go to in Shanghai.” For Jordan, there's one big factor holding back his production: "It’s so slow to get in product for craft beer. On the cocktail side, in the past two years, there’s been such a boom.”

Overall though, the beer scene has improved dramatically. When Jordan arrived in Shanghai a year ago, Boxing Cat had a set menu of what he terms “non-offensive beers.” As Jordan explains, “I came in with a different mindset. After living in Denmark and in the US, where things are a little more experimental and bold, I wanted to create big Belgians and IPAs and just experiment. I came with my own ideas, like aging beers in wine barrels, which is pretty similar to what's happening elsewhere in the world. There are certain people in Shanghai who were already aware of it and have just embraced it. It’s fun. What we see here is that people are pretty open to it. We try to warn them a bit about what this is and then let them go and enjoy.”

Similarly, Sky Xu, head bartender at M1NT, has watched cocktail drinkers become increasingly aware of each drink's elements. “People now expect higher quality ingredients in their drinks, from the syrups and bitters to the vodkas,” Xu says. “People want fresh fruit in their cocktails, so we now use different purées.”

China is developing an increasingly sophisticated palate for high quality tipples, and a growing number of beer and cocktail suppliers are scratching at China's door, salivating at the enormous distribution volume available. It’s made supplies of formerly hard-to-get ingredients accessible to cocktail makers. Unfortunately, Jordan says, this hasn't been the case for the craft beer industry.

“China is the third largest hop-producing country in the world, but all the hops are made for Harbin or Tsingtao–they're not made for nice, aromatic beers. They're made for one thing: lager. For me, it would be nice to buy our ingredients locally. I would like to not have to buy my hops from North America or Europe.”

Although increasing quality of products has allowed cocktails to flourish, Xu believes “the classic cocktails will always be classic.” However, with a newly developing interest in what goes into drinks, M1NT's top barman has found that "people ask for quality drinks, but it's still difficult to find one ‘best cocktail’ to suit each person's palate–it differs drastically in Shanghai. Before, it was just very simple mixes. Now more complex cocktails are popular. And for the future, there will continue to be a push for more complicated drinks."

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Where is the Scene Heading?

Shanghai’s beer and cocktail industries have grown exponentially in the past year. New craft breweries and cocktail lounges have sprouted up across the city. Shanghai now has over 20 microbreweries and countless cocktail lounges. But even with all this development, Christoffer Backman, manager of Waldorf Astoria’s Long Bar, sees cocktails going to a place where there will be “more refinement.”

“We [at the Long Bar] won’t experiment–but if a super-premium ingredient comes along, we will test it out,” Backman says. “We won’t get into smoke, mirrors and lights–that’s not the Waldorf–but there are new guys like that coming, and it’s definitely the way to go. It’s transcending borders, with biological and chemical cooking. But right now, for us, it’s all about barrels–which barrel, where the barrels have come from, cherry oak, pine oak, whether the barrel has been burned or not … but beer is the same way. It used to be made from just four ingredients.”

The craft beer industry has taken its cue from spirits and is now experimenting with different ingredients. “The more experimental beers are becoming popular, like the fruity beers, vanilla, chocolate, peach and dark beers,” says Cedric Bourlet of Cheer’s In on Yongkang Lu.

“I’ve found there are two types of people [in our store]. People who already like beer, and younger people who want to experiment. Beer is trendy all over the world, but there are old breweries now being reborn with a new image. Even in Shanghai, there are people who want to discover beers from all over. It was difficult a few years ago to even find Belgian and American beers in Shanghai. Now I have about a 60 to 40 percent (expat to Chinese) mix, and it’s the Chinese who want to experiment.”

Change is closer than one might think. "In one to two years there will be [cocktail] places that are comparable to bars in London, Paris and New York,” Backman predicts. “It’s grown from the increased selection that’s now available. It started with basic bottles on the table in the nightclubs and it’s just cascaded. Local guests are coming in wanting to work through the entire menu. There aren’t many expats who want to do that. So we educate them on what to choose, and they get excited about being educated.”

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Which industry will eventually win out?

Although most still regard Shanghai as a cocktail city, China on the whole is the largest consumer of beer in the world. With a craft beer industry in its nascent stage, The BREW’s Leon Mickelson believes that the seed is firmly planted and taking root.

“The cocktail industry is perceived to be developing a lot more new cocktails,” Michelson says. "But look back at the history of cocktails： the ’80s were about fast mix cocktails, the ’90s were fruits and spices, and now you’re looking at molecular mixology. Overall though, it’s almost like they’re running out and moving back to more traditional cocktails. So when you look at the consumption of beer within China, I would say that the craft beer revolution is growing faster.”

Adam Deverman, newly of Apothecary after years at Mesa | Manifesto, agrees. “There are a lot more beer drinkers in China.” And when where imports are concerned, Shanghai is definitely a beer city, Devermann asserts. “The market for Western spirits in China is miniscule. It may be pushing 4 million cases now. A year or two ago, it was around three percent of the spirits market–and 75 percent of that is done through four cities. There’s much more selection now than three years ago when it was just the big guys like Chivas. We have many more unique choices. But the beer selection has grown from big to bigger with the American Craft Brewing Association pushing quite a bit. I think it’s all based on demand.”

“The demand is huge,” says Mickelson. "For imported beers coming into China, it’s just on an upward scale. They can’t get enough.” He notes that there have been a number of cases of Chinese importers knocking on brewers’ doors in the US, and the breweries just being unable to supply the amount that they’re talking about in China. “It’s definitely here–the revolution–and people want more beer and a more aromatic taste," Mickelson concludes. "I think the expats may have helped kick-start the craft beer revolution, but surely just seeing the variety of options on the market, the locals must start to realize that, ‘hey, these are very good quality.’ It's starting a snowball effect.”

Words by Geoff Ng and Andrew James