A curious mix

Leave behind the margaritas and martinis. Mixologists are shaking up a new range of cocktails to cool you down on a sweltering summer day, writes Avantika Bhuyan. 

Art deco in a glass 

At Bombay Canteen, located in Mumbai’s swish Kamala Mills complex, nine new drinks have been named after iconic structures in south Mumbai, such as Hotel Sea Green, Empress Court, Rajjab Mahal and Liberty Cinema. The architecture comes through in their structure, choice of ingredients and appearance. “For example, the Green Fields has been inspired by the building of the same name,” explains Yash Bhanage, partner, Bombay Canteen. “The building has jasmine hues; so we have used jasmine-infused gin with green tea syrup made in-house.”

Green Fields

Ingredients: Gordon’s London Dry Gin 45 ml; jasmine and green tea syrup 30 ml; starfruit juice 30 ml; lime juice 10 ml; egg white 1; jasmine flowers for garnish.

Method: To prepare jasmine and green tea syrup, add 100 grams of jasmine flowers and 4 tsp of green tea leaves in 1 litre of sugar syrup. Allow this to infuse for 12 hours. Strain into a bottle or an airtight container and store in a cool dark place. Add all the ingredients into a shaker and shake without ice first to get the desired texture. Then shake with ice and double strain into a glass over ice.

Popcorn in your whisky 

At Fatty Bao, which launched the “Root to fruit” cocktails three months ago, ingredients such as miso, ginger paste, sesame and cucumber are used simultaneously to make savoury dishes as well as cocktails. “The nose-to-tail concept, when you use every part of the animal to create different dishes, has been applied to cocktails as well,” says Nakul Chandra, brand head, The Fatty Bao, Monkey Bar and Toast & Tonic. Only here, every part of the plant — root, stem, bark, leave and fruit — is used. A highlight of the menu, available in outlets in Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai, is the K-Pop, in which whisky is infused overnight with popcorn.

K-Pop

Ingredients: Popcorn-infused whisky, wasabi syrup, dashes of Earl Grey bitters (or Angostura bitters), fresh popcorn on tray and grapefruit peel to garnish.

Method: Fill two-thirds of a rock glass with ice. Add wasabi syrup and stir in the infused whisky. Top it up with a dash or two of bitters and garnish with a two-inch strip of grapefruit peel. Serve with a tiny tray of fresh popcorn. You can add the popcorn to the drink or eat it alongside.

Cocktails of tomorrow

“As in kitchen, so in bar,” says celebrity mixologist Ian Sedwell who is creating a range of bespoke cocktails for the Piano Bar at The Oberoi, Gurgaon. Sedwell believes in the marriage of the kitchen spice box and the bartender’s Boston shaker to create cocktails of the future. “One of my favourites, from the drinks I have created for the Piano Bar, is a long drink featuring cinnamon, yoghurt, coconut and a Japanese spirit,” he says. 

East meets West

Ingredients: Bacardi Blanca 2 oz, mango juice 1 oz, pineapple sherbet 1 oz, sugar 0.5 oz, yoghurt 2 spoons, 2 dashes of poppy seed home-made tincture, crushed ice.

Method: Blend all the ingredients together and serve in a long glass. Garnish with burnt poppy seeds.

The mixologist’s lab

At Zorawar Kalra’s MasalaBar in Mumbai, a combination of innovation and rare ingredients fuels cocktails. “For instance, I use chickpea powder, or sattu, and mascarpone cheese in some of my creations,” says Aman Dua, head mixologist, Massive Restaurants. In Bollywood Bhang, he uses a magnetic stirrer to extract the essence of basil. “There is also the rotary apparatus to get a clear essence of any ingredient. It used to be a favourite of chefs, but was never used in mixology earlier,” he says. 

Malabar Point

Ingredients: Apple chamomile reduction, vodka, thyme foam.

Method: Create an apple chamomile reduction, muddle it with vodka and punctuate it with thyme foam.

The golden egg

The Magic Egg at Birdie Num Num, Gurgaon, is truly Instagram-worthy. This celebratory drink of sorts comes in a golden egg that has been cracked open. The whisky drink features a concoction of almond and banana. “We have tried to bring in the elements of the bird’s habitat and the food it would eat,” says Yuvna Damani, chef and founder, Birdie Num Num.

The Magic Egg

Ingredients: Bourbon, toasted almond syrup, caramelised banana syrup, egg white, lime juice.

Method: Separate the white from the egg yolk. Add lime juice to a shaker, followed by banana syrup and toasted almond syrup. Now add the egg white and bourbon and dry shake. Then, shake with ice cubes. Pour into an egg-shaped glass or any chilled glass. Serve with toasted almonds as garnish. Add dry ice for the magic.