The Core Framework and Concept of the Five Elements | In Culture, In Flavor

If this is your first time seeing Rewind’s cocktail menu, you may ask:

“Why the Five Elements?”

In fact, this answer existed long before Rewind.

For us, the Five Elements are not about turning metal, wood, water, fire, and earth into five cocktails.

In Eastern culture, the Five Elements are more like a way of understanding the world.

Metal, wood, water, fire, and earth give rise to one another and also keep one another in check.

It is not only about five elements, but about how things influence and transform one another, ultimately finding their own balance.

We really like this concept.

Because a good cocktail is also like this.

Sour does not exist on its own; sweetness can make sourness softer, bitterness can add depth, spice can make flavors more three-dimensional, while umami can reconnect flavors that were originally scattered.

Within the theoretical system of 《黃帝內經》, this concept is further connected to the “five tastes” we see:

Metal | Spicy Wood | Tangy Water | Savory Fire | Bitter Earth | Sweet

These are not five flavors we arbitrarily assigned to the Five Elements.

They have their own cultural origins, and what we do is bring this ancient relationship of taste to today.

Of course, you do not need to understand the Five Elements before you can order a drink.

You only need to tell us:

“What kind of flavor do I want to drink tonight?”

Leave the rest to us.

We have borrowed this ancient framework of the Five Elements, not to recreate tradition, but in the hope of letting it form a new relationship with today's sense of taste through a cocktail.

Culture gives us a way to understand the world. Flavor gives us the opportunity to experience it firsthand.

An ancient language of five tastes, retold through the modern cocktail.