Want to know which cocktail influences are on the horizon, which classic concepts are back but revitalised, and which spirit should be bubbling in your glasses? Here’s the scoop.
Some talented bartenders show off their skills. While spinning bottles around, flipping their cocktail shaker in the air, doing an about-turn at the same time, the ‘spirited’ boys not only whip up interesting concoctions but also stage a perfect live show.
Mango-e-trois by Nevil Timbadia, BONOBO bar.love.food, Mumbai
Ingredients: Fresh Mango, Aniseed, Lemon, Vanilla bean, Curry leaves, Vodka 60 ml
Method: Rim half the martini glass with a mixture of sea salt and amchur in a 50:50 ratio. The curry leaf here is not muddled (to prevent an overpowering aroma and taste), just torn in two and thrown in the shaker along with the aniseed, vanilla bean and vodka. Squeeze the lemon after pouring the drink in the glass. Garnish with small satay stick pierced through a thin, long piece of aampapad.
June Bug by The Park, New Delhi
Ingredients: 45 ml White Rum; 15ml Cream De Banana; 15ml Malibu; 10ml Midori; 60ml Pineapple Juice; 15ml Lime Juice
Method: Take ice in a cocktail shaker. Pour white rum, cream de banana, Malibu, midori, lime juice and pineapple juice. Shake and strain in a cocktail shaker. Pour into a chilled hurricane glass. Garnish the rim with a melon flag
Wasabi Margarita (frozen) by Manav Sharma at Chilli Seasons, Delhi
Ingredients: 30 ml Tequila; 15 ml tipple sec; 10 ml lime juice; Dash of Wasabi; Lemon grass stem
Method: Pour the ingredients into a cocktail shaker. Shake well. Salt the rim of a chilled margarita glass. Pour contents on a bed of crushed ice. Garnish with a smashed lemon grass stick.
Tip: The smashed lemon grass adds a sweet contrast to the spicy Wasabi.
The Classic Caiprinha by Sanjay Singh, The Hans Plaza Hotel, New Delhi
Ingredients: 4-5 small lemon wedges; 2 tsps of normal or demarara sugar; 45ml of Cachaca (Brazilian Sugarcane rum); A sprig of mint for garnish; An old fashioned glass
Method: Take the lemon wedges and put them in the old fashioned glass. Add the sugar/demarara sugar and muddle for around two minutes. Top with lots of ice. Pour in the Cachaca and mix gently. Garnish with a mint sprig.
Tip: Extremely simple to make but you must have the one key ingredient without which the drink would not be original. Cachaca, a Brazilian Rum made of sugar cane, is distilled in oak or indigenous wooden casks for one to 12 years.
Lava Flow by Ravishekar, Sheraton Park Hotels & Towers, Chennai
Ingredients: 60 ml Bacardi; 4-5 Lime Wedges; 10 Mint leaves; 20 Pomegranate seeds; 10 ml Pomegranate juice
Method: Muddle mint leaves and lemon wedges gently in a tall glass. Add 30 ml of sugar syrup. Add crushed ice along with pomegranate seeds. Mix well. Add Bacardi. Fill with crushed ice, mixing all ingredients well. Pour pomegranate juice and garnish with mint and pomegranate seeds
Tamarind Tiger by Pardeep Kumar, Hotel Imperial, New Delhi
Ingredients: 60 ml Vodka, 1 Sachet Brown Sugar, 10 Lime Quarters, 10ml Lemon Juice, Tamarind Syrup, Lemon slice.
Method: Put lime along with brown sugar in the glass. Use the muddler to crush the lime until it mixes well with sugar and tamarind syrup. Fill three-quarters glass with crushed ice. Top off with vodka. Garnish with a lemon slice and serve with a straw.
Try these at your next soiree. And then come back with some more fizzy-on-the-tongue effect.
