The Perception Bar at W London, the hotel's ground floor bar on Wardour Street in Soho, relaunched in September 2026 as an all agave cocktail program called Soho's Home of Agave, pouring close to 100 tequilas, mezcals and related spirits.
The Spirits Business and Forbes both covered the relaunch in September, and Haute Living, Trend Hunter and A Lush Life Manual have since written it up as well, each crediting the switch to rising guest demand for tequila and mezcal cocktails rather than a one off seasonal menu change.
What's actually on the Soho's Home of Agave menu
The program is split into four sections: Reimagined Classics, an Agave Exploration or Global Exploration list, Signature Palomas, and Alcohol-Free Favourites. The Signature Palomas section alone runs five variations on the classic highball, among them the Sierra Brava, which combines Volcan Blanco and Koch Mezcal clarified with charred pineapple, grapefruit, lime and achiote-infused agave, and the Ruby Paloma, built on Ocho Reposado and finished with a grapefruit meringue foam. The Reimagined Classics list includes the Velvet Agave, a Margarita variation that layers Mijenta Tequila with kumquat liqueur, Baileys and lime under a chocolate banana foam, alongside a chimichurri fat washed Tequila serve called the Chimichurri Royale. Guests can also order from six discovery flights of three 25ml pours each, including one labeled Mezcal Road Trip and another called Is This Even Tequila? Separately, the bar's House of Infusions program has its own bar team steeping small batch agave infusions in house, served as 30ml pours either neat or mixed to order.
Why W London rebuilt the list around agave
Pedro Branco, director of food and beverage at W London, told The Spirits Business that the relaunch marked a renewed focus on agave spirits for the bar, framing it as a natural evolution given rising interest in Tequila, mezcal and agave led cocktails, with the stated goal of making the venue Soho's leading destination for agave discovery. Haute Living reported that the change followed a run of guests ordering Picantes, Skinny Margaritas and Palomas before the relaunch, which the team read as evidence the category had already outgrown a single section of the old menu. Forbes, writing under the Agave Spirits Go Mainstream As W London Bets Its Whole Bar On It headline, noted that committing an entire bar within a Marriott branded, five star hotel to one spirits category is a departure from the consistency and broad appeal that typically govern food and beverage decisions at international chains, and reported that the bar's team does not see the move as simply riding a trend.
What the Global Exploration list adds beyond Mexico
Alongside Mexican tequila and mezcal, the Global Exploration section pours agave spirits made outside Mexico: Maya Pistola Agavepura Añejo from India, an Agave Reposado distilled by Winchester Distillery in Hampshire, England, Agave Australis from Australia, and Leonista Karoo from South Africa. Forbes described these non-Mexican entries as being presented on the menu as serious artisan sipping spirits rather than novelties. None of the outlets covering the relaunch reported volume figures, pricing for the new menu, or a breakdown of how many of the near 100 listed spirits are Mexican-made tequila or mezcal versus agave spirits produced elsewhere, and that detail remains undisclosed.
What this means
A hotel bar committing its full list to agave is a story about range and curation, not about what is in any single bottle it pours. Mijenta Blanco, used in the bar's Velvet Agave serve, carries a published TW Score of 70 of 95 in Tequila Watch's own database, a rating of the bottle itself and unrelated to how the London venue chooses to mix it. What is worth watching from here is whether the Global Exploration list expands as promised and whether any of its international producers publish the kind of documentation, certification or sourcing detail that lets a bottle be assessed on its own terms.