Cocktail Daily- Kretek I Carrots Bar, Jakarta

Bourbon / Smoked Cacao Nibs / Cinzano Rosso Vermouth / Tobacco Bitters / Chocolate / Cloves

Hidden beneath Jakarta’s SCBD, Carrots Bar turns the search for its entrance into part of the experience.

The bar is tucked away inside the basement parking area of Fairgrounds. You head downstairs, walk through a space that looks far more like a car park than the entrance to a cocktail bar, and keep going until you spot a discreet carrot sign. Only then do you know you have found the right place.

The scene becomes even more amusing during peak hours, when a queue starts forming outside. If you did not know there was a bar hidden there, you could easily assume everyone was simply waiting to pay for parking.

Step inside, however, and the atmosphere changes completely.

Carrots has only around a dozen seats, with a long communal table extending through the centre of the room. The layout naturally brings guests together, narrowing the distance between bartenders, regulars and first-time visitors. When an interesting drink arrives, conversation tends to follow — people compare what they ordered, exchange impressions and sometimes even share tastes with one another.

Despite being hidden away, Carrots never feels closed off. Unlike speakeasies that rely heavily on secrecy and exclusivity, it feels more like an underground cocktail gathering — difficult to find, but remarkably easy to start talking to strangers once you are inside.

And the night does not necessarily end there. Fairgrounds is part of Jakarta’s nightlife scene, with a nightclub upstairs, so spending a few hours drinking downstairs at Carrots before heading up to continue the night makes for a very Jakarta-style evening.

Despite its compact size, Carrots has established a significant presence in Asia’s bar scene, ranking No.21 on Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2026. Its cocktails follow a similarly distinctive philosophy: familiar classic structures are combined with culinary ideas, spices and regional Asian flavours, rather than relying purely on unusual ingredients or elaborate presentation.

The Kretek is a particularly good example of that approach.

Kretek refers to Indonesia’s traditional clove cigarettes, known for their distinctive aromatic profile. Instead of simply recreating the idea with heavy smoke, Carrots breaks that sensory memory down into its most recognisable elements — clove, tobacco, cacao and roasted aromas — then rebuilds them within the structure of a Boulevardier.

Wild Turkey 81 Bourbon and Rosso Vermouth establish the warm, full-bodied bittersweet foundation. Smoked cacao nibs, chocolate and tobacco bitters then deepen the profile, gradually pulling the drink toward darker, drier territory.

The defining element, however, is the clove.

Rather than functioning as a decorative garnish, it connects the cacao, wood, spice and tobacco-like aromas throughout the drink. These are all flavours that could easily make a cocktail feel overly dense, yet Kretek retains the clear spirit-driven structure of a Boulevardier.

The result is therefore less of a “smoky chocolate cocktail” and more of an Indonesian sensory memory translated into a classic cocktail format.

Its presentation is equally restrained.

Deep amber with reddish-brown tones, the drink is served in a substantial rocks glass over a large cube of ice, with only a simple clove element on the surface. There is no extravagant garnish or unnecessary visual theatre. Instead, the dark, warm colour of the cocktail becomes the focus.

That restraint is also what makes Kretek interesting.

Rather than placing “Indonesian identity” visibly on top of the drink, Carrots embeds it within the flavour structure itself. Even without knowing the cultural reference behind Kretek, it still works as a well-constructed Boulevardier variation. Once the story is understood, however, the combination of clove, tobacco and cacao gains an additional layer of meaning.

Tasting Notes

Aroma:
Clove spice should provide the first point of recognition, followed by smoked cacao, roasted notes and a drier tobacco-like character, supported underneath by the vanilla and woody tones of the bourbon.

Palate:
Bourbon and Rosso Vermouth form a rich bittersweet backbone, while cacao and chocolate add roundness through the mid-palate. Clove and tobacco bitters gradually introduce spice and dryness. The overall flavour profile is dark and concentrated, yet the individual elements remain clearly defined.

Finish:
Cacao bitterness, clove spice and the drying effect of the bitters gradually remain on the palate, allowing the warmer opening of bourbon and vermouth to taper into a more restrained finish.

Overall:
What makes Kretek work is not simply the combination of clove, cacao and tobacco, but the way these assertive flavours remain disciplined within a mature, recognisable classic structure.

From the understated carrot sign hidden inside a basement car park, to the queue of people who look as though they are waiting to pay for parking — but are actually waiting to enter Asia’s No.21 bar — and finally to a Boulevardier inspired by Indonesia’s iconic clove cigarettes, Carrots seems to have a habit of hiding its most interesting details a little deeper than expected.

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