Mekhong

Mekhong is Thailand’s first domestically produced spirit, crafted since 1941 from 95% sugarcane/molasses and 5% rice, infused with a secret blend of Thai herbs and spices — producing a smooth, aromatic spirit with notes of ginger, honey, toffee, and vanilla. The base for the Thai Sabai cocktail.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Mekhong a rum, a whisky, or something else?

Mekhong is genuinely difficult to categorize by Western spirit taxonomy. In Thailand it is traditionally called “Thai whisky” despite containing no grain distillate in the whisky sense — the primary base is sugarcane molasses, which would classify it as a rum under most regulatory frameworks. The 5% rice component and the proprietary Thai herb and spice infusion push it into a distinct category of its own: a blended, infused spirit that sits between rum, liqueur, and something with no direct Western equivalent. The TTB (US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) classifies Mekhong as a specialty spirit on importation. The most accurate description is probably a spiced sugarcane spirit with botanical infusion.

What is the Sabai cocktail and what makes Mekhong well-suited for it?

The Sabai is Thailand’s most iconic Mekhong cocktail — Mekhong over ice with soda water and a squeeze of lime, served in a tall glass. The combination works because Mekhong’s natural sweetness and herbal spice character are balanced and lightened by the effervescence of soda and the acidity of lime without losing the spirit’s distinctive aromatic profile. It is functionally similar to a rum and soda or a highball construction, but the ginger, vanilla, and Thai herb notes in Mekhong produce a flavor that reads as distinctly Southeast Asian rather than Caribbean or European.