Finding it
At the back of the courtyard
6 of 48 posts say it is hidden or hard to find
The bar sits at the far end of a courtyard off Andingmennei Dajie. Visitors say to look for the 五花商店 (Wuhua Shangdian) shopfront on the street and turn in boldly. One describes a narrow path into a compound that still looked half built. Another, coming from Non-Binary, says to turn right out of its door and walk straight, and you’ll find Chocolate+Milk as the last door on the right inside the courtyard.
Even so, people get lost. One visitor in January says being good with directions doesn’t help and you will end up phoning the bar. Another, in October 2026, stood right outside and still couldn’t see the way in. The visitor who came from Non-Binary found it fine by following the map.
“Being good with directions won’t help. You’ll have to phone.”
Xiaohongshu post, Jan 2026
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Most talked-about drink
Peach, twice
7 posts on the winter No. 3, 5 on the summer N2 Bellini
On the opening menu in January, the drink people wrote about most was No. 3: peach fermented with champagne yeast, cinnamon kefir and a gin distilled with matcha and white ginger flower. To some it was a peach soda, easy and fizzy. Others felt a numbing, peppery heat, closer to Sichuan pepper than ginger, and one found it addictive. The harshest review of that menu rated it the most drinkable of the lot. Another visitor couldn’t get past the ginger, which grows stronger and more bitter as the bubbles fade. That menu has since changed.
In August the peach came back as the N2 Bellini, from the menu of classic twists: fresh peach purée and sparkling wine, served with a big slice of peach. All five posts that mention it like it. Visitors say it is very low in alcohol and tastes like fresh peach juice with the pulp left in, so it suits people who don’t drink much.
“Order the peach without thinking, whether you can drink or not.”
Xiaohongshu post, Aug 2026
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Signature drinks
Fermented, and it divides people
16 posts review the fermented signatures. 12 mostly like them
Every signature is built on fermentation, done in a lab behind the bar, and the list has changed twice since the reopening. The January menu paired odd ingredients. No. 1 put tomato, shrimp-oil sugar, clear soy sauce and pickled chilli with tequila, and one regular called it a more serious Bloody Mary. No. 5 used berries and salted fish fermented with spent IPA grain. One visitor caught a finish of 臭鳜鱼 (stinky mandarin fish, a pungent Anhui dish) about five seconds after swallowing, and liked it anyway. No. 8, with smoked beetroot and mezcal, is very strong. One visitor felt dizzy after a full glass.
The spring and summer list arrived in April with ten drinks. The visitor who drank all ten on the first night thought it beat the winter list, and picked No. 3, lychee with a sharp sour ferment, as the best. Four posts mention No. 5, a watermelon kombucha highball, mostly kindly, though one found a bitter edge behind the sweetness. Drink it quickly, says another, because as the ice melts it starts to taste of overripe watermelon. No. 4, with prune, plum, rose and mulberry gin, is rich and on the sweet side.
Not every combination lands. No. 7 on the spring list, jackfruit with cheese, was too much for the visitor who liked most of the others. No. 1, a Martini-style drink with lime husks aged on straw, reminded one visitor and their friend of medicated balm, though the first-night reviewer liked its cool, minty freshness. The two harshest posts, both from the first weeks, found the fermented drinks thin and unbalanced. There is more on that under Complaints.
“Like molecular cooking, they make awkward ingredients turn out a surprise.”
Xiaohongshu post, Apr 2026
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Classics
The twists win people over
15 posts mention the classics or the August twists. 8 are full of praise
When the bar reopened it brought back six drinks from the old Sanlitun menu. One returning regular ordered the Da Hong Pao Manhattan, named after the Wuyi rock tea, and says a sip brought every memory back. The Baguette Sour, built like a Whisky Sour with baguette and caramel apple, split opinion. For one visitor it was the only drink they finished. For another it went flat once the foam settled. South Beauty disappointed a gin lover, who found the gin’s botanicals lost under milk and vodka.
In August the bar added eight twists on classics, and these are the drinks most liked in our sample. The Almond Oil Sour, with wild almond oil, rum and lemon, comes up again and again. Visitors compare it to almond tofu, the Beijing dessert, praise its thick foam and call it the best Almond Sour they have had. The Dirty Martini Tonic uses yuzu soy sauce with Non-Binary’s own gin and tonic, so it is slightly salty and very fresh. The Manhattan twist is called smooth and round, and the Margarita Martini hides a frozen tomato. It seems plain at first, then opens up as it warms.
A few notes of caution. One visitor found the Negroni and Manhattan twists too strong for light drinkers. Another said everything was easy to drink but nothing stunned, though their second visit was clearly better than the first. The Salty White Negroni, with kombu and olive, tasted odd to one visitor at first, then became the drink they thought about most on the way home.
“The best Almond Sour I’ve ever had.”
Xiaohongshu post, Aug 2026
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Bartenders
Happy to explain
6 posts write about the bartenders
Posts describe bartenders who like talking about how the drinks are made. Two August posts describe a bartender explaining densing, a vacuum blender that binds oil into the drink so the flavour holds. One post names him as Dawei, and says he told the visitor that food-pairing cocktails are planned for the year-end menu.
Another visitor thanks a bartender called Du after working through the August menu. One credits Wayne for two free shots. A visitor sent over by the bartender at Non-Binary says the bartenders and other guests were good fun, and they talked until closing.
And a story from January. A couple turned up after closing time and begged for just the simplest drink, promising to call a taxi the moment they started it. The bartender declined, politely and with jokes. The visitor watching found the whole exchange very funny.
“Not snooty at all. We chatted the whole night.”
Xiaohongshu post, Jul 2026
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Service
Welcome drinks, and a few rough nights
11 posts mention service. 3 complain
Four posts describe a welcome drink, and it changes with the menu. In January it was an alcohol-free version of a drink made with pine needles, pine honey and fermented birch sap. In August one visitor got coconut, pineapple and Earl Grey, and another something closer to kombucha. Free shots turn up often too.
Staff will fix a drink you don’t like. When a visitor’s friend said the spring No. 1 tasted like liquid herbal balm, the server offered to swap it straight away. Another visitor phoned ahead on a weekday without asking for anything special and found a good seat kept for them. During the January rush, one group celebrating a birthday swapped slices of their cake for the floor staff’s shots.
The complaints come from busy nights. In late January one visitor counted six or seven staff but only one taking orders, who moved to the next table before they had finished. Around the same time another waited half an hour for drinks that, it turned out, had never been ordered. And in August a visitor who had gone to Non-Binary while waiting for a seat was turned away on their return, told the bar doesn’t serve drunk customers. They dispute that they were drunk, and say they won’t go back.
“Whatever you make of the drinks, the service gets top marks.”
Xiaohongshu post, Aug 2026
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Food
Snacks, and noodles across the road
6 posts mention something to eat
There is no proper food. The one snack named in our sample is the okra, which one visitor rates. Some drinks come with something to eat: an almond biscuit on the Almond Oil Sour, which two visitors enjoyed, a big slice of peach with the N2 Bellini, and a small piece of cheese with the January No. 8.
If you want dinner first, one visitor recommends a Chongqing noodle shop across the street, run by an owner from Hechuan.
Xiaohongshu post, Jan 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Aug 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Aug 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Aug 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Jan 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Oct 2026
The room
A lab behind the bar
7 posts describe the room
The bar is built around its fermentation lab, right behind the counter. Order, and your bartender disappears into it. One visitor called it the Breaking Bad of bars. Another said the big metal door made the whole place feel like a laboratory. The yeast theme runs through everything: the logo is a yeast colony under a microscope, and the three coasters each show a different one.
Some of the old Sanlitun bar came along too. One returning regular spotted the same automatic door, the mural and the big triangular ceiling. Another visitor liked the room and its soundtrack of melodic English rap, though they noticed a strong smell of yeast as soon as they walked in. In January the courtyard outside was still being finished.
“You’d think Walter White had opened a bar.”
Xiaohongshu post, Sep 2026
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Seats and crowds
Packed in January, easier since
9 posts talk about getting a seat
The reopening drew crowds. In the first weeks, one visitor arrived ten minutes before the 7pm opening and got the last two seats. Another found it full before 8pm and says tables turn over between 9 and 9.30. A third saw three drinks sell out within two hours of opening, and suggested waiting a few weeks for a calmer visit.
By summer it was easier. In August one visitor walked in on a weekday with no wait, after phoning ahead and finding a good seat kept for them. Weekends are still busy, according to a regular, and another August visitor had to wait and went to Non-Binary in the meantime. One visitor in September booked before a second visit.
Xiaohongshu post, Jan 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Jan 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Jan 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Aug 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Aug 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Aug 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Sep 2026
Price
About ¥95 a drink
2 posts mention price
One visitor in January worked out an average of ¥95 a drink, and notes that group-buy vouchers from Chinese review apps aren’t accepted. Another called it not expensive. On the summer menu we photographed in June 2026, the signatures were ¥92.
Xiaohongshu post, Jan 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Jan 2026
Toilets
Not the strong point
2 posts mention the toilets
One reviewer scored the bar 4 out of 5 on everything except the toilet, which got 3. Replying to a comment under another post, the author says there is no toilet at all. The two may both be right if the toilet is outside the bar itself, but neither post says.
Xiaohongshu post, Jan 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Jan 2026
How people hear about it
Old regulars and the Non-Binary crowd
14 posts call it the old bar back. 8 link it to Non-Binary
Chocolate+Milk was a Sanlitun bar that closed in 2023, and for many Beijing drinkers it was a real loss. The reopening at Andingmen in January 2026 set off a wave of posts. Fourteen in our sample mention the comeback, and 19 of the 48 were posted that month. Those who knew the old Sanlitun bar write about it fondly. For one it was a hidden corner of the city to drink in. Another says the Sanlitun bar was where they first learnt what molecular cocktails could be.
The other way in is Non-Binary, a short walk away. Eight posts mention it. Several say the two bars come from the same team, and visitors often do both in one night. One was sent over by the bartender at Non-Binary.
Then there is Xiaohongshu itself. Three visitors came after seeing it there, one after half a month of the yeast logo filling their feed. One of the most critical posts in January blamed exactly that hype.
“The year it closed, Beijing winters felt a little harder.”
Xiaohongshu post, Jan 2026
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Complaints
A rough start
4 negative posts, 3 mixed
Three of the four negative posts come from the first two months after the reopening, and all three are about the drinks. One visitor found the fermented drinks thin, turning into something like pickle brine as they sat, rated No. 3 the most drinkable and left soon after. Several commenters agreed. Another liked the room but found the drinks unbalanced, finishing only one of four. A third simply didn’t get the drinks, and their order was forgotten for half an hour.
The fourth, from August, is the visitor turned away as drunk, described under Service. The mixed posts say similar things more gently: easy to drink but nothing that stuns, rich layers but too much ginger, and a comeback that hasn’t quite worked yet, though that visitor wondered if the fault was theirs.
Posts after the April and August menus are much warmer. That may be the menus improving, as three visitors think, or simply a change in who chose to post. Our counts only cover Xiaohongshu.
“Complicated, and not in a good way.”
Xiaohongshu post, Feb 2026
Xiaohongshu post, Jan 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Feb 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Jan 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Aug 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Aug 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Jan 2026 · Xiaohongshu post, Jan 2026
We searched Xiaohongshu, China’s main lifestyle and review app, for every post about Chocolate+Milk we could find. We set aside posts about the drink chocolate milk and other venues, posts by brands and the bar’s designers, list posts that say nothing about the bar and posts with no text, which left 48 by visitors. All 48 are from 2026 and about the bar at Andingmen. Where visitors write about the old Sanlitun bar, we say so. We read each one ourselves to make the counts. 25 posts only show a short preview, so treat the numbers as a minimum. The summaries and translated quotes are ours, and the links go to the original posts. Last checked 2026-10-10.
