Medellín cocktail lab
- Forbes ran a profile of Mamba Negra’s Mamba Lab, spotlighting an immersive cocktail laboratory in Medellín. - The story ties the bar to the World’s 50 Best orbit and destination‑level cocktail innovation. - Forbes positions the venue as part of Colombia’s broader push to raise its global spirits identity. (forbes.com)
Medellín bar Mamba Negra is turning cocktails into a booked, 90-minute tasting experience as it pushes deeper into the global bar circuit. (forbes.com) Forbes reported on April 21 that Mamba Lab is the newest project from the team behind Mamba Negra, which entered The World’s 50 Best Bars list in 2025. The World’s 50 Best Discovery site now lists Mamba Negra at No. 81 on the 2025 bars ranking. (forbes.com) (theworlds50best.com) The lab sits inside Mamba Negra in El Poblado and sells an eight-drink experience made with 100% Colombian ingredients. The venue says the session costs 400,000 Colombian pesos, lasts about 1 hour and 30 minutes, and is capped at 16 people. (mambanegra.co) That format shifts the bar from a standard rooftop service model toward a reservation-led tasting menu, the structure more often used by destination cocktail bars trying to control pacing, storytelling, and technique. Forbes said the concept is designed to make cocktails feel like a laboratory-style experience rather than a conventional night out. (mambanegra.co) (forbes.com) The timing matters for Medellín because the city only recently broke into the top tier of international bar rankings. In October 2025, Forbes reported that Mamba Negra and Bar Carmen were Medellín’s first cocktail bars to make The World’s 50 Best Bars list. (forbes.com) The project also fits a broader Colombia pitch: local ingredients, local spirits, and local identity packaged for travelers who increasingly choose bars the way they choose restaurants. Mamba Negra’s own site says the lab reworks drinks such as a Kir Royale and Bloody Mary with Colombian ingredients, while Forbes tied the concept to Colombia’s effort to claim more space in the global spirits conversation. (mambanegra.co) (forbes.com) Juan David Zapata, Mamba Negra’s founder, is central to that pitch. The World’s 50 Best Discovery profile describes him as a Colombian bartender who rose through Medellín’s bar scene, and Colombian business daily La República said he leads Mamba Lab from the 22nd floor of the Q Office building. (theworlds50best.com) (larepublica.co) La República reported in August 2025 that the eight cocktails are mapped to Colombian regions and ingredients, from a Guajira drink built with purple yam to a closing Andes serve with Colombian coffee. It also said the launch included original music by the Medellín Philharmonic for each stage of the tasting. (larepublica.co) Industry judges were already noticing the bar before Forbes’ latest profile. Tales of the Cocktail Foundation named Mamba Negra among its 2025 Latin America and Caribbean Regional Top 10 honorees for the Spirited Awards, adding another credential to a bar already using a World’s 50 Best ranking as a tourism signal. (talesofthecocktail.org) (theworlds50best.com) For now, Mamba Lab is a small room with 16 seats, eight cocktails, and a price point that puts it closer to fine dining than casual drinks. That is exactly the lane Medellín’s bar scene is trying to occupy as it asks visitors to treat the city’s cocktails as a destination in their own right. (mambanegra.co) (forbes.com)
