Cheers to mixing it up!

Chandreyi Bandyopadhyay

Cocktails in purple, pinkish red, and algae green adorn the counter at a new cocktail bar in Goa. At the heart of Anjuna, on a fine evening, Sandy, the owner of the restaurant was whipping up a colourful medley of cocktails for his guests. While many caught my tongue (pun intended), the brilliant aroma of the dessert cocktail that reminisced of the grandmother’s ‘paan ki dibiya’ is something I cannot forget. Glass rimmed with a fantastically flavourful mixture of kattha (a mixture of betel nut, areca nut, and slaked lime), the drink could easily pass off as a traditional paan, with the exception of gin in it. As it appears, Indian mixologists are taking their legacy a notch up with intelligent and prudent use of homegrown ingredients.

At the Blue Bar in Taj Palace Delhi, chief mixologist Joel Lindsay made us try a few of his secret concoctions during a bar trail hosted by the team behind 30 Best Bars of India. Apart from a grapefruit and ginger margarita using Maya Pistola, an Indian agave spirit creating ripples in the mezcal space; a stunningly delicious mixture of maple syrup with garam masala, star anise and cinnamon stood out as one of the most delicious things I have tasted in a while at a bar!

Going vocal for local

The fire is raging over using Indian ingredients behind the counter. Manoj Singh Rawat of Sorano in Kolkata has innovated and experimented with several Indian ingredients that are well-known to the Indian palate but rarely used before within the sphere of beverages and underexplored in cocktail culture — such as curry leaves, a betel liqueur, a bay leaf infused gin or a mustard seed infused tequila. The infusion game is afoot with mixologists taking upon themselves the task of experimenting and carefully carving out a niche for themselves when it comes to innovation. Not everything is to be muddled or shaken. According to Arijit Bose, who helms the secret operations of the CounterTop India Lab tucked inside a pristine Goan home, “the strong flavour and character of Indian ingredients were thought to be a hindrance to its effective use in drinks. Some ingredients take more effort and technique.” Based in Goa, the team at CounterTop India has the advantage of local markets and forest farms and sets about foraging often. “The only rule is foraging has to be responsible and we only take what we will use and not waste,” adds Bose. The availability of local products was never a problem. “If we take just three ingredients from each region, we can make ample amount of infusions,” chimes Mayur Marne, partner and mixologist at Pune-based Cobbler & Crew. Ingredients like Kolhapuri chilli, Bhavnagri chilli or Kashmiri chilli are easy to source and represent Indian culture effortlessly. The bar uses Thecha, Bhakarwadi, Khakra as garnish items in some of its signature drinks. Meanwhile, the new speakeasy bar in Kolkata, Little Bit Sober, has come up with a rendition of the classic Bloody Mary containing kasundi — a mustard paste served with cutlets, adds Shabaz, their Chief Bar Master.

The role of learning

As bartenders are learning to choose better drinks to play with and incorporate the right techniques for the effective use of ingredients into cocktails, a shift is visible in how cocktails are brewed by mixologists, at par with chefs working on food innovation. Radhakrishnan Nair, the co-founder of 30BestBarsIndia is excited about India’s bar programmes. “We are providing a platform for bars across the country to elevate the standards of such programmes. The ranking has become a coveted industry standard, and it is exciting to see bar teams constantly re-invent and push boundaries — whether it’s by paying more attention to their menus or innovating with ingredients to create hyper-localised cocktails,” he acquiesces. At Masque Lab in Mumbai, a calm, pleasant face behind spectacles is hard at work, concocting magical drinks like the Void Negroni — a rendition of the classic bitter cocktail, except for any colours. A rising standard in cocktail innovation — the process of clarification made Ankush Gamre’s colourless Negroni win hearts and many fans at a masterclass by Hapusa gin in South Mumbai.

The cost of innovation

With smart management, encouraging investors and exciting partnerships, standalone bars are more open to risks, involving expensive equipment and cumbersome sourcing. Shantanu Chanda, an award-winning mixologist from HOME Delhi, talks about the importance of fermentation in the drinks-making process. An in-house distillation setup allows him to experiment with different ingredients and how they fare in building a compelling cocktail. “This is something that has never been tried in the fine-dining space before,” Chanda claims. Using modern techniques of distillation with a rotavapor to bring out the complex flavours within a neutral spirit or infusions done with the help of a sous vide machine for balancing the flavour and aroma of the ingredients at an accurate temperature and timing, plays a pivotal role in setting the base for the cocktails according to Rawat.

True mixologists are always on their toes as they are not just innovating for the drinks but also for processes and equipment in their absence. “The right equipment always helps but knowing how to replicate the process in case that expensive equipment is not available is just as important,” adds Bose.