JA Manafaru has opened the most northern cocktail destination in the Maldives with the arrival of the elegant Veli Bar.

Known as the Real Maldives, JA Manafaru has named its new bar Veli Bar, which is Dhivehi for ‘sand bar’. Perched over the tranquil waters of Haa Alifu Atoll, this bar adds to the extensive Dine and Imbibe offering of the five-star resort.

The new bar has been created in line with the resort’s new focus on from-scratch creations. The extensive crafted cocktail menu has been designed with the resorts reinvented sustainability focus using produce from the gardens to create fresh flavours. The menu also works to fulfil JA Manafaru’s zero food waste goals with creative garnishes and the creation of Tepache, a fermented beverage that uses waste pineapple skins.

Veli Bar is also home to the resort’s Wellness Lab creations, where the skilled bar team have created an array of tinctures to craft specialised Bitters to suit the individual cocktails. They also make chemical free natural tonic water the old-fashioned way, with Cinchona bark. This also allows them to create a sugar free version of this popular mixer. The JA Manafaru team are also busily fermenting a range of beverages including proper kombucha, lacto-fermented lemonade and natural ginger beer.

Also in keeping with the resorts sustainability goals, the new bars décor has been devised with the skilled tradesmen on the island up-cycling furniture and using items from nature found on the lush natural island such as tree stumps for side tables and beautiful orchids grown on the resort itself.

Veli Bar is located nearby to the resort’s Subterranean Wine Cellar, still the deepest found in the Maldives. This allows discerning visitors to sample labels from the extensive selection, or even wander over to choose their own bottle.

For more Dining stories click here.