Against all expectations, Kunming has just planted its flag on the global cocktail map with SUMA — a transportive, terroir-driven bar at Shangri-La Kunming that distills Yunnan’s wild natural beauty and cultural soul into every glass.
You’d totally expect to find best-of-class cocktail bars in China’s top-tier cities like Shanghai, Shenzhen, or Guangzhou. But Kunming? Well, China’s “City of Eternal Spring” recently welcomed a new bar that may just make it a year-round destination for globetrotting cocktail aficionados.
Welcome to SUMA, a stunning new bar at Shangri-La Kunming located in the heart of the city’s downtown. Shangri-La Kunming itself sits within a sprawling modern hotel complex that also houses JEN Kunming by Shangri-La (its more youthful, mid-range line), both of which are set to cater for the increasing number of sophisticated travellers looking to explore this culturally-rich yet progressive capital city of Yunnan.
But this is more than a standard hotel bar. Much, much more.
Opened ahead of the hotel’s official unveiling later in 2025, SUMA is an ambitious project that sets a very high bar — pun fully intended — for the city’s future nightlife, blending world-class mixology with hyperlocal storytelling. To that end the bar tapped the SG Group, a bar-centric hospitality outfit led by renowned Japanese bartending legend Shingo Gokan, for aid in distilling the spirit of Yunnan, and Kunming in particular, into liquid form.
At the heart of SUMA is a celebration of place. Named after the word for “azalea” and “woman” in the Yi language — one of the 25 officially recognised ethnic minorities in Yunnan — the menu is a sprawling 20-cocktail tome that reinterprets the region’s diverse foodways — from everyday dishes to ceremonial drinks — into libations laden with deep cultural meaning.
That’s no mean feat.
Yunnan is often described as China’s most biodiverse and culturally rich province — and for good reason. Ancient trade routes crisscross this region including, yes, the historic Silk Road. There’s also the Tea Route, on which tea — primarily Pu-er — produced here in Yunnan is sent on horseback to Tibet. This is a city where locals sip tea in bamboo groves, wet markets overflow with foraged herbs, wild mushrooms and heirloom grains, and traditional architecture rub shoulders with gleaming modernity.
You’ll find these elements woven into the drinks at SUMA.
There’s the Nanpie Mule, which reimagines the classic Moscow Mule as inspired by a herbaceous dipping sauce used in Dai cuisine, or Yak Butter Fashioned, where you have the whiskey fat-washed in yak butter — a beloved ingredient from Tibet-influenced northern Yunnan — for a silky, deeply-nuanced Old Fashioned.
Prefer a more floral tipple? The Por Amor is a romantic, localised riff on the Lychee Martini that slowly blossoms as its rose-shaped ice cube, infused with heirloom Yunnan rose petals, melts over time. On the more savoury side is the Tree Tomato Tree, SUMA’s own cheeky twist on one of Shingo Gokan’s own signature cocktails with a distinct Yunnan take with tamarillo, yellow tomato and mastiha.
Our favourite of the lot? The Magic Manhattan, which leans on mushrooms — Yunnan is, after all, China’s mushroom capital, growing over 250 edible varieties including the prized matsutake and jicong — for a wildly umami, fungi-driven experience.
Visually, SUMA is similarly immersive.
SUMA occupies the fifth floor of Shangri-la Kunming, and walking its corridors unfolds like a journey through Yunnan’s cultures and landscapes in three distinct spaces. Think handwoven textile panels, engraved stonework, intricate hand-carved wooden detailing and patterned fabrics inspired by Yunnan’s diverse tribes such as the Yi, Bai, Lisu, and Hani peoples.
You’ll pass by a lush, open-air terrace brimming with herbs, vines and light, a favourite of cocktail-loving locals and international visitors for alfresco sipping and supping in Kunming’s benign weather. On the way you might stumble across the spirit lounge, a quiet, more contemplative space suitable for appreciating anything from bajiu to single malt Scotch. The main bar itself? Intimate, sophisticated and appropriately dark and brooding — perfect for a romantic date as it is for festive celebration.
SUMA might be a newcomer to China’s cocktail scene, but the Kunming bar’s intentions are clear. This is a bar with ambition. And perhaps most importantly, SUMA feels like the right kind of first — a thoughtful concept that is like a microcosm of Kunming itself.
In a region long celebrated for its tea, terroir, and traditions, this is a cocktail bar that respectfully stirs up the past while confidently shaking up the future.
SUMA
Address China, CN 云南省 昆明市 盘龙区 东风东路 88 88~96号 邮政编码: 650011 (Google Maps link)
Opening Hours 2pm to 1am daily
Tel (84) 871 6311 9208
Web www.shangri-la.com/restaurants-bars/kunming/panlongdistrict/suma-bar/
Facebook SumaBar
Instagram @sumakunming
Follow us on Telegram to get updated on events and other spirited announcements!
