The Three X Co Team Reflects on Their Wildly Exploratory ‘IndiVDuality’ Tour Around Malaysia
Coast to coast cocktails
A candid conversation with the Three X Co team about its ‘IndiVDuality’ tour, which saw the bar visit humble Malaysian towns with pop-up experiences inspired by the local palate.
Three X Co is a name everybody who loves a good cocktail hour would—and should—know. Proudly carrying the Kuala Lumpur name to global heights, the Bangsar tipple institution broadened its local borders with its ‘IndiVDuality’ tour last year. With stops in Sekinchan, Muar, Teluk Intan, and more, the journey challenged the team to come up with special menus for each destination, giving them the opportunity to experiment with local flavours and ingredients in cocktail form. As the tour has recently concluded, we had a little chat with producer and co-founder Angeline Tan about the team’s experiences and the work that goes into planning a truly unique initiative like this one.
What sparked the idea behind the ‘IndiVDuality’ tour?
My partner and I actually toyed with the idea about a local listening tour a few years ago but it was all fuzzy and lacked a theme. We launched our IndiVDuality menu last year and the concept has always been more than a menu for us—it’s a way of looking at and learning about people.
Every cocktail holds a story and every preference reveals something about who we are. After a year of running the programme inside the bar, we realised we were only hearing one side of the conversation: the people who could come to us. So we asked ourselves,”What if we flipped the script?” That’s how the idea of the tour was born. A desire to meet people where they are in their own rhythm of life. Bringing Three X Co out is part road trip, part cultural listening exercise.
How did you decide on each of these stops?
Other than demographic considerations, such as having a sizable younger population, each location was chosen for its personality. Sekinchan has this calm, cinematic charm, where rice fields stretch into the horizon and life feels unhurried. Kuching is layered, soulful, and rich with heritage. Muar and Telok Intan are warm, tightly-knit towns where everyone seems to know each other and every corner has a memory.
These aren’t typical cocktail destinations, but that’s exactly why we wanted to go. To us, these places reflect the Malaysia that doesn’t always make it into conversations about “drinking culture”. Yet, each one holds an identity that deserves to be understood.
Walk us through the organising process of curating each experience at the different stops.
We will arrive a day early to speak to the locals and “recce” the place where we wanted to set up our mobile booth. We start by observing the town—its morning energy, the market chatter, where people gather, eat, and move through the day. From there, the experience grows organically: setting up a mobile bar next to a wet market or street, talking to the coconut seller and hawkers, letting the environment dictate the tone.
Every stop is a small reinvention. What works in Sekinchan might not land in Kuching. What inspires us in Muar might feel different in Telok Intan. The curation isn’t about replicating an experience—it’s about responding to a place.
What do you think is the importance of connecting with local communities in the context of cocktails?
Because cocktails, at their core, are cultural objects. They can be shaped by memory, time, and setting—the same way food is. But cocktails often carry this perception of being “city things,” and for sophisticated drinkers or spirits may have connotations of “bitter” and “strong”.
We try our best to use some of their local ingredients in our cocktails to bridge the gap and find a common language to spark curiosity and open conversations. It becomes less about impressing people and more about understanding them.
What is the thought process behind creating cocktails for each stop?
We treat each town like a character. The team will start by studying what the town is known for and we try to start from there in our creative development. Sometimes it’s a flavour note from a local ingredient; sometimes it’s a story someone tells us; sometimes it’s simply the mood of the place. We try to find familiarity so that it makes us and our drinks approachable.
What is something you prioritise when creating these cocktails?
Humanity. A good tour cocktail isn’t just delicious; it’s approachable and considerate of the people you’re serving. We want locals to recognise something of themselves in the drink, whether it’s a familiar flavour or a scent. If a cocktail sparks a conversation or makes someone smile with recognition, it has done its job.
How do you make sure to connect with the local community beyond your shift in the town?
We make it a point to show up as travellers, not performers. We eat where the locals eat, we try what they recommend, and we go where they tell us to go. We talk to vendors like aunties running kuih stalls and fruit stall uncles—basically, anyone who anchors the town’s daily life.
Some of the best insights come from these unscripted moments. A bowl of mee sua in Kuching taught us about balance. A conversation with a fruit seller in Sekinchan inspired an ingredient pairing. A late-night chat in Muar reminded us why hospitality is a universal language.
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Which was the team’s favourite destination to visit and why?
All the destinations were meaningful in their own way. Every town and every city welcomed us with warmth, and everywhere we went, we met people who helped us and shared stories with us. But… if we had to single out one place that felt a little more special, it would be Kuching. Maybe it was the culture—rich, layered, and yet strangely familiar even though much of it was new to us. Maybe it was the way the city holds its heritage without feeling frozen in time.
The weekend indigenous market opened our eyes to flavours and ingredients we rarely encounter in West Malaysia. The longhouse visit gave us a glimpse into a way of life that is communal and gracious. And then there were the quiet moments we loved, just walking (and eating) through town.
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Which destination challenged the team the most when it came to recipe development?
Sekinchan challenged us the most, simply because it was our very first stop. We were still learning how to translate the spirit of the IndiVDuality Tour into an actual on-ground experience, and Sekinchan became that testing ground.
On top of that, we had a pairing picnic planned — which meant the cocktails needed to work not only on their own, but alongside a menu in the middle of rice fields at sunset. Balancing flavour, mood, and environment—all while still trying to understand how the community would receive us—made Sekinchan the most creatively demanding destination. But that challenge also shaped the foundation for every stop after.
Name a part of the planning process that the public might not know about that was vital to your overall tour.
People often see the cocktails, the mobile bar, the photos, and the conversations. But what they don’t see is the persuasion work that happens long before we arrive. For every destination, while scouting for locations, we spent hours trying to find someone (or someone who knows someone) who can point us to the right market square or town centre. We had to explain who we are, why we were doing it, and so forth.
People were skeptical and suspicious … and rightfully so! That was the most difficult part for us. It was the same with getting the first “customer” to try our cocktails. As such, we learned that we couldn’t just show up like any outsider performing a pop-up. We had to arrive as respectful guests and curate experiences that belonged to the community as much as they belonged to us.
Tell us about a key takeaway that you’ve got from this tour.
That individuality lives everywhere. What makes each stop special isn’t the scenery, but the people. Their habits, their stories, their preferences, the way they describe taste… people as themselves, and people in relation. The self and the space between selves. The tour taught us that cocktails don’t have to be intimidating or complex to be meaningful…and they’re good ice breakers!
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