Discover how Wasteland’s BROWSE programme turns discarded kitchen scraps into craft cocktails in this deep dive into one of Bangkok’s most innovative sustainable bars. 

What comes to mind when you hear the word ‘wasteland’? 

Perhaps it’s T.S. Eliot’s bleak April, or the rebellious, burnt-out youth of The Who’s 1971 anthem Baba O’Riley with its refrain: “teenage wasteland.” In popular culture, the word conjures images of stark desolation, a barren landscape which is stunted and drained of potential. 

The word ‘sustainability’, on the other hand, paints a picture of lush ecologies, from wildflower meadows to dense jungles. These images are a far cry from those associated with the word ‘wasteland’.

Yet on Soi Pridi Banomyong 1 (Edison Alley), right off Sukhumvit 71 Road, an experimental bar named Wasteland fuses these polar opposites. Rather than writing off spent citrus, kitchen scraps and leftover herbs, the bar actively seeks to harness their potential. By extracting flavours from ingredients that standard venues would discard into the bin, they create an ambitious cocktail lineup where sustainability is just another side of the same coin: creative mixology.

But how do they actually pull it off? On the latest episode of Koktail Konversations (which you can read here), co-founder and managing director Dharath “Tot” Hoonchamlong alongside co-founder and beverage director Kitibordee “Gov” Chortubtim break down their upcycling philosophy and the craft behind true zero-waste cocktails.

In this feature, Koktail takes a closer look at the ‘Wasteland: BROWSE, Experimental / R&D Sessions’ menu, uncovering the alchemy inside each glass, from overlooked ingredients and inventive techniques to the story behind the project. It is an inspiring vision to be sure, but to understand it, you have to experience the space itself, so step inside with us.

Arriving at Wasteland

The moment you step into Wasteland, you feel like you’ve entered another realm. Located on Soi Pridi Banomyong 1 (Edison Alley) among vintage buildings and local dining spots, a tiny door leads to a narrow staircase that opens into a second-floor bar. 

The space goes all-in on a brutalist-industrial look, setting lustreless grey concrete against shiny galvanised metal sheeting. Overhead, industrial cage lights throw soft shadows across the main bar, which is a heavy diamond tread plate metal counter illuminated from beneath by a translucent glass block base. Instead of conventional display shelves, the back bar has this somewhat chaotic but functional setup: open fridges mounted directly to the walls, jars of house-fermented ingredients, juicers and stainless steel prep stations. Wrapped in one-way glass, the closed-off room strips away outside distractions, giving off the thrill of stepping into an underground research hub.

It’s best to grab a seat at the bar, where head bartender Wachiraya “Bell” Banpot brings plenty of flair to mixing drinks. The vibe is easygoing and open, making it easy to chat away and ask questions about whatever catches your eye in your glass.

On the third floor sits the bar’s dedicated lab space. Through expansive glass panels, you get a front-row view of ongoing liquid experiments, complete with laboratory glassware and quasi-scientific equipment. The room just outside offers a comfortable, laid-back spot where the bar hosts occasional activities and curated gatherings. Upstairs, the fourth floor serves as the main office, while the fifth-floor rooftop is turning green, where the team has already kicked off composting as the first step towards building a small green space and edible garden.

Fresh, Surplus and Overlooked Ingredients

While their core focus is on repurposing excess ingredients from local food operations – essentially leftovers – their scope goes much deeper. To source and diversify what comes through the bar, they organise ingredients into three main categories: fresh, surplus and overlooked. 

The fresh ingredients often stem from field trips and direct chats with local farmers, sometimes requiring years of advance planning to secure. The surplus and overlooked categories come from listening to producers’ advice on what usually goes to waste and finding clever ways to use it. When unexpected produce arrives at the door, the team has to think on their feet, experimenting and modifying flavours on the fly.

When working with hyper-seasonal produce, timing is everything. The team often shelves recipes and extraction methods until the right moment comes along, letting chance play a big role in the creative process. A single cocktail might take years to perfect, while another takes just a week. Regardless of the timeline, they go out into the field to forage and source ingredients personally, putting in heavy research and development to ensure every idea works. Getting ingredients to the bar involves a lot of extra legwork, meaning menu prep can drag out as they figure out how to physically get ingredients into the lab.

The ingredient list reads like anything but a cocktail menu: fish bones, ground shells, peanut skins, dried-up limes, cacao husks and dok chom manat (bread flowers) turning from white to yellow by the second. Most of these items come from local food and beverage venues that toss them out once their initial use is gone. But for the team at Wasteland, everything has value if looked at from the right perspective. There’s potential in every spent form, a flavour waiting to be extracted right underneath the surface.

The Drinks

Instead of creative cocktail names, the drinks are identified simply by numbers and a breakdown of their ingredients. Through their BROWSE programme, the team drops five new creations weekly, each available in two distinct styles, expanding the line-up to ten by the week’s end. 

Various techniques are borrowed across different drink styles. For example, Drink #1 can be ordered either sour or fizzy in dedicated glassware, combining naturally floral torch ginger spirits with grenadine for color and house-made tepache. Its fermentation method is adapted from traditional pineapple tepache – an ancient Mexican drink using discarded fruit peels and rinds – a process grounded in zero-waste sustainability. As Gov explains, suppliers sometimes give them such a massive excess of pineapple that they aren’t even sure what to do with it all, showing just how abundant the world of surplus ingredients actually is. 

Even with the same drink, a change in presentation introduces totally different textures and ways of drinking. Drink #7 features surplus plum wine alongside cacao husk spirits, kirsch and wheatgrass, served either spirit-forward or creamy. The spirit-forward option is all about layers, with green wheatgrass sitting on top so you have to sip slowly to reach the flavours below. If you opt for the creamy version, the foamy texture makes it effortless to drink, sliding down smoothly from the first sip. It’s all about personal preference, even when the underlying recipe remains unchanged.

Some drinks tell a proper story. Drink #6 – which uses pomelo blossom wine and can be served either in a clear, fizzy form or in a sbagliato style with campari and sweet vermouth – is the result of a five-year quest to track down dok som-o (pomelo blossoms) for their distinct citrus notes. 

After talking to several growers, the team kept hitting dead ends in their search for organic blooms. That changed last year during a field trip around Chiang Mai, when they stumbled upon a small mixed-crop farm with less than ten pomelo trees run by an elderly couple. The farmers were trimming off crowded blossom clusters to stop them competing for growth, letting the clipped flowers drop to the ground. When asked if they could take the discarded blooms, the couple agreed. Returning with a massive harvest, the team created base stocks, then fermented the remaining spent blossoms, where scent could no longer be extracted, into pomelo blossom wine.

The flagship, Drink #10, is served either fizzy or as an American-style float topped with vanilla ice cream. It combines fernet branca with a cola made from cacao husks, a byproduct of the chocolate-making process. To source these husks, the team struck a deal with a chocolate maker in a neighbouring country. Sweet and perfectly balanced, the drink evokes the nostalgia of a mid-century American diner, rendered vintage and creamy thanks to that generous scoop of vanilla.

Other menu highlights include Drink #2, blending Suntory Toki with chalood bark, peanut skins and leftover coffee grounds in either an old fashioned or highball style. Drink #8 mixes gin, pear juice, lemon and discarded limes, offered sour or fizzy (the latter garnished with a charming pear-shaped stencil on top). Drink #5 uses tequila, vegetable stock, passion fruit, garlic brine and fresh lime, with the option to add curd chilli for a fruity, deep-red variation.

There are more menus slated to drop in the upcoming weeks until 30 September. If you’re a cocktail enthusiast, you simply cannot sit this one out. The bar is located in Edison Alley at 3/19 Pridi Banomyong 1 (Sukhumvit 71 Rd, Vadhana), open every day from 6pm to midnight. Keep an eye on @wastelandbkk on Instagram to catch their latest drops.