The leaves grow in clumps around the side of most Malaysian houses we've been in, the kind of plant nobody plants on purpose but everyone has. Pandan is a constant in this part of the world. From what we've gathered at the bar, it's also one of the most underused ingredients in modern drinks outside Southeast Asia.

This piece is a set of notes on what we've found pandan does well, what trips us up, and how we use it across cocktails and non-alcoholic drinks. We're still learning.

What pandan tastes like

Pandan (Pandanus amaryllifolius) has a flavour that's hard to describe without resorting to comparisons that all fall short. Green tea is the closest single anchor. Add a thin layer of fresh coconut, a hint of jasmine rice on the stove, and something grassier that doesn't map to anything Western at all. In Southeast Asia it's sometimes called the "vanilla of the East", but we've come to think that comparison sells it short. Vanilla is sweet and warm. Pandan is green and savoury.

Where it shows up traditionally:

  • In kuih (steamed and baked sweets, often coloured pale green with pandan juice)
  • In coconut rice (a few leaves tied into a knot and steamed in)
  • In chicken (pandan-wrapped chicken; the leaves perfume the meat)
  • In drinks (pandan-coconut, pandan-lime, soya cincau with pandan)

It rarely steps forward as the main note. It hangs back and rounds things off. That's what makes it interesting for cocktails, where we usually want at least one element that adds depth without demanding attention.

How we extract it

Three methods we use. None are exclusive, we often combine.

Blanch and blend. Wash 8 to 10 leaves. Roll them into a coil. Blanch for 30 seconds in boiling water, drain, plunge into ice water (this helps fix the colour). Cut into 2-inch pieces, blend with a cup of water until you get a thick green pulp. Strain through cheesecloth, squeezing hard. You get a deep green, slightly opaque pandan water. Best for kuih or cooking rice. Refrigerate, use within 2 days.

Steep in syrup. Make a 1:1 simple syrup (or richer 2:1 for cocktails). Take 6 to 8 pandan leaves, tie them in a knot, drop them in while the syrup is still hot (around 70°C). Let them steep for 30 to 45 minutes. Strain. You get a pandan syrup with cleaner, more steeped flavour. Best for cocktails. The syrup keeps for 3 to 4 weeks refrigerated. This is our default.

Cold infuse spirits. Pandan and gin work especially well together. Take a 700ml bottle of gin, add 4 to 5 fresh pandan leaves tied in a knot, leave for 24 to 48 hours. Strain. The gin picks up a soft green nose without losing its juniper structure. Use it for martinis, gimlets, or as the base of a pandan collins. We've also tried this with vodka (works), rum (works, leans tiki), and tequila (didn't love it, the pandan got fighty with the agave).

What pairs with pandan

What we've found works well:

  • Lime juice (the citrus that doesn't fight pandan's greenness)
  • Coconut (the classic Malay pairing: cream, water, sugar)
  • Lemongrass (similar geography, similar weight)
  • Ginger (provides heat that pandan lacks)
  • Floral elements (rose, elderflower, jasmine layer on top of pandan's grassy base)
  • White spirits (gin first, then vodka, then white rum)

What we've found doesn't work as easily:

  • Heavy aged spirits (the wood tends to overwhelm)
  • Strong bitter elements like Campari or Aperol (pandan reads as soft, they read as loud; the result feels like a fight)
  • Berry flavours (conceptually they should work, we just haven't made one we love yet; if you have, tell us)

A simple pandan collins

The pandan collins is on the drink builder for a reason. It's the easiest entry point and, in our opinion, the best showcase.

  • 45ml gin (or vodka for a softer pour)
  • 25ml fresh lime juice
  • 20ml pandan syrup (from method 2 above)
  • 90ml chilled soda water
  • Lime wheel and a knotted pandan blade for garnish

Shake the gin, lime, and pandan syrup with ice. Strain into a tall glass over fresh ice. Top with soda. The drink reads green-floral up front, sour-citrus through the middle, and finishes with a long, vegetal pandan note that lingers in a way ordinary herbal syrups don't.

A small mistake we kept making

For a long time we tried to push pandan forward by using more of it. More leaves, more syrup, longer steeps. The drinks got greener and more pungent, but also more medicinal. We've come around to thinking pandan works best at a level where you barely notice it. The drinker should taste lime first, then the gin or whatever the body is, and then notice on the second sip that there's something else hanging back. The whole point is the hanging back.

If you build pandan to be the loudest voice, it can come across as cough syrup. We learned this slowly.

Other places to try pandan

A few applications we've found work:

  • Pandan in iced tea, especially Earl Grey (the bergamot and pandan complement each other well)
  • Pandan coconut horchata
  • Pandan-coconut soda (pandan syrup plus coconut water plus a squeeze of lime, topped with soda; ridiculously refreshing in PJ heat)
  • Pandan-infused condensed milk for kopi (yes, pandan and kopi together work; we wrote about kopi here)
  • Pandan-rim sugar (process pandan with sugar in a blender, dry it out, use as a rim for sweet cocktails)

One more thing

Pandan deserves a bigger seat at the modern cocktail table than it currently has. We're still learning what works. If you've made pandan drinks that taught you something we haven't found yet, we'd genuinely like to hear about them. WhatsApp the bar anytime.