This cosy cocktail den hidden in the Toranomon Hills Business Tower has one of the most interesting bar concepts in Tokyo. The plant-filled, wood-accented interior is reminiscent of a plush safari lodge and hints at the bar’s botanical leanings. While the menu features drinks made with fruit and herbs, the hero here is the cacao.
Led by acclaimed bartender Shuzo Nagumo, Memento Mori celebrates cacao in its various forms – not just the final product that we are all too familiar with, ie, chocolate. The best way to savour this concept is with the Bean to Glass signature cocktail course, which comes with the option of having three, four or five items.
The course starts with Memento Mori’s house cocktail, the Cacao Pulp Fizz, served in an eye-catching cacao pod no less. As its name suggests, this refreshing, effervescent, vodka-based cocktail is made with cacao fruit, which surprisingly tastes like mangosteen, along with vinegar made from said pulp and some passion fruit for hits of acidity.
The second drink marries the fruit of the season with a cacao nib-infused spirit. On our visit, we had a peach number that used cognac flavoured with cacao nibs and blue cheese. It was a bold combination that mixes sweet and savoury notes, but made for a lip-smacking delight.
For the third item on the course, you get to choose between a cacao wine or a tasting flight of three cacao spirits. The former is a luscious Californian merlot steeped with cacao nibs and dried fruit while the latter could be rum, vodka or even gin infused with different single-origin cacao.
As Memento Mori takes pride in working with fair trade companies that source directly from farmers in different parts of the world, the menu goes into detail explaining the provenance of each cacao and its unique flavour profile. Madagascar cacao, for instance, possesses fruity acidity with a complex aroma while Colombian cacao has notes of black tea and honey. And you can really taste the terroir in the cocktails, of which there is a long list, ranging from reworked classics like Amazon Cacao Negroni (with cacao Campari) to new creations such as the dessert-like Caramel Mango Cake (with cacao vodka).
Note: Memento Mori has a ¥800 table charge per person.