At the recently concluded 30BestBarsIndia award night — that took place in Gurugram in January and is co-curated by this magazine and Tulleeho — the banquet hall saw the coming together of some of India’s most celebrated mixologists, helming the bars that rose to the top solidifying their positions as trailblazers in the Indian bar scene. And as we saw them share bonhomie over endless glasses of drinks, the mind wondered, what these alcohol enthusiasts drink when they’re unwinding alone at home. Here’s what we found out:
Sarath Nair, Bar Manager, Copitas
Nair, who helms the bar at 30BestBars’ runner-up, Copitas, has managed to keep the spirits quite literally high at this fast-paced bar with his signature take on artisanal cocktails, including the popular G&T. “My go-to drink after work would be an Old Fashioned. It’s a drink from the 19th century and incredibly easy to make. After your shift, you don’t really want to make a fancy drink and this one just needs sugar, aromatic bitters and a nice bourbon. My current favourite is Wild Turkey and I typically enjoy it with ice and a twist of orange,” he shares.
For Recipe Box:
Nair’s Old Fashioned
Ingredients:
60 ml bourbon
1 barspoon water
4 dashes bitter
1 cube sugar
Process:
Muddle everything together, give it a good stir and pour over ice.
Santanu Chanda, Group Beverage Manager, HOME
We saw HOME from Delhi bag the #3 spot and the man behind the bar here is Chanda. “After work, I am always looking for a drink that’s punchy and full of flavour, which leads me to Clover Club. I like to serve it up over ice with a lemon and raspberry garnish — it is the perfect combination of sweet, sour, and sass,” he says about his favourite tipple to unwind with, which can be traced back to 1800s Philadelphia and named after the Clover Club, a prominent gentlemen’s club in the city at the time.
For Recipe Box:
Chanda’s Clover Club
Ingredients:
45 ml gin
15 ml lemon juice
20 ml raspberry liqueur
30 ml fresh pineapple juice
2 dash smoked saline
2 dash peach bitter
Process:
Dry shake ingredients to emulsify, add ice, shake and serve straight up.
Varun Sharma, Head of Bars, Comorin
Sharma heads the bar at Comorin, Gurgaon, which claimed the sixth spot on this coveted list. “I love having the Old-Fashioned Bittered Sling cocktail. Did you know cocktails were originally called ‘old fashioned cocktails’, which referred to a general style of mixology, instead of a particular drink? And while whisky is often seen as the base spirit of an Old Fashioned, these recipes included other spirits, too like rum, cognac, gin, tequila, or mezcal.”
For Recipe Box:
Sharma’s Old-Fashioned Bittered Sling
Ingredients:
60 ml bourbon or rye whiskey
1 sugar cube
2-3 dashes angostura bitters
Process:
Place a sugar cube in a mixing glass and saturate it with bitters. Muddle all the ingredients and add lots of ice cubes. Stir rapidly with a bar spoon to chill. Strain into an old-fashioned glass with a big, clear block of ice. Garnish with orange peel or cherry and enjoy.
Ankush Gamre, Head Mixologist, Masque
Masque has established itself as a pathbreaker when it comes to food, but their cocktail programme isn’t far behind. Gamre, who leads the bar there, says he enjoys contemporary, spirit-forward drinks in his time off. “Recently, I have been leaning towards tequila and mezcals. My current favourite is a mix of mezcal with a bit of Luxardo, Cointreau and Amaro. The drink is quick and easy to put together and it’s got depth and bitterness, which is what I need after work!”
For Recipe Box:
Gamre’s Mezcal Mix
Ingredients:
50 ml mezcal
5 ml Luxardo
5 ml Cointreau
5 ml Montenegro
Process:
Stir all the ingredients with plenty of ice until chilled; strain and pour into a frozen glass over a large ice cube.
Jishnu AJ, Head Mixologist, Ekaa
“My favourite drink to have after work is a slightly offbeat old-world cocktail called The Last Word. It’s a gin-based, Prohibition-era cocktail with an interesting history. It was featured in Detroit Athletic Club’s Cocktail Menu and was sold for 35 cents in 1915, making it the most expensive drink on the menu,” spills Jishnu, who is much-loved for his wizardry at Ekaa in Mumbai. This tipple engineer thinks of the perfect cocktail as a symphony and considers his top nightcap as the most unique one.
For Recipe Box:
Jishnu’s Last Word
Ingredients:
22.5 ml gin
22.5 ml maraschino liqueur
22.5 ml green chartreuse
22.5ml fresh lime juice
Process:
Shake all the ingredients and double strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with lemon zest and enjoy.
