Shoreditch hardly needs another excuse to stay out late, but Chiave has given it one anyway.

The East London bar has launched a new cocktail menu created by award-winning bartender Bilal Tekec, with drinks ranging from mango-spiked tequila and coconut-washed whisky to sakura, yuzu and clarified pomegranate.

Chiave is as interested in music as it is cocktails, with its Copenhagen-built Arda Audio sound system at the centre of the space. The idea is that evenings can start relatively gently with a drink and gradually turn up as the music does.

If you’re looking for cocktails in Shoreditch this summer, here are five from the new menu that caught our attention.

1. Roxy – for tequila with a tropical kick

£15

If you’re going to start somewhere, Roxy looks like the obvious choice.

Don Julio Blanco tequila is mixed with Desi Daru Mango Vodka and limoncello, with citrus bringing the sourness and a touch of green pepper adding some heat.

Mango, lemon and tequila could easily have gone very sweet, but the pepper sounds like the ingredient that should stop this becoming another predictable tropical cocktail.

One for anyone who usually orders a margarita but fancies wandering slightly off-script.

2. City Samba – for something altogether more unusual

£15

Coconut fat-washed whisky is not something you’ll find on every Shoreditch drinks menu.

City Samba combines it with clarified pineapple, vetiver and Amaro Nonino, creating a cocktail that moves between tropical, bitter and slightly earthy flavours.

It is also a good example of what Chiave is trying to do with the new menu. These aren’t simply familiar classics with a new garnish on top; there is some fairly serious cocktail-making going on behind the bar.

If Roxy is the easy introduction, City Samba sounds like the one to order when you want to try something you probably couldn’t make at home.

3. Flamenko Sketches – for the fruitier option

£14

Not everything needs to involve fat-washing and unusual botanicals.

Flamenko Sketches combines vodka with clarified pomegranate, raspberry shrub and sherry.

The result promises to be bright and fruit-forward without becoming overly sweet, with the sherry adding a little more depth.

It also has possibly the best name on the menu, sounding more like a forgotten jazz record than something you’re about to drink in Shoreditch.

If you like berry-led cocktails, this is probably where we’d look first.

4. Capybara – for the adventurous gin drinker

£14

Capybara may be the most intriguing cocktail of the five.

Tanqueray No.10 is mixed with sakura, jasmine, elderflower and palo santo, producing a drink that is floral at first before heading towards a more aromatic, woody finish.

There are plenty of gin cocktails in London. There are rather fewer involving Japanese cherry blossom and palo santo.

This sounds like one to drink slowly – and possibly spend the first few minutes trying to work out exactly what you’re tasting.

5. Stardust – for a proper summer drink

£14

Rum, passion fruit, mint, yuzu and soda.

Sometimes you don’t need to overcomplicate things.

Stardust is Chiave’s highball option and probably the easiest drink on the menu to picture yourself ordering on a warm London evening.

Passion fruit brings the tropical sweetness, yuzu adds a sharper citrus edge and soda keeps everything light.

After some of the more experimental cocktails on the list, Stardust feels like a good one to finish with.

And one for Martini fans…

There is also a returning favourite worth knowing about.

Spybreak (£15) is Chiave’s take on the Martini, but the ingredients are a little less conventional.

Olive oil-washed vodka is combined with vermouth and fino sherry to create a silky, savoury drink with plenty of umami.

If your idea of a cocktail is something dry, strong and definitely not covered in passion fruit, this may be your order.

Cocktails with a soundtrack

Part of what makes Chiave interesting is that the drinks aren’t really being presented separately from the music.

The bar’s Arda Audio sound system is a major part of its identity, with the atmosphere designed to change through the evening – starting with early drinks before moving into louder, more music-led nights.

That makes this less about sitting somewhere for one carefully constructed cocktail and more about finding somewhere you might actually want to stay for a while.

And in Shoreditch, where there is no shortage of places competing for your Friday night, that matters.

Whether we’d start with Roxy, move on to City Samba and finish with Stardust is another question entirely.

Probably best not to make all five a personal challenge.

Find Chiave on Instagram for the latest opening times, music and cocktail updates.