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Florified Indigo

Made with love

Mumbai-based mixologist Sharan Kutty - who started Otane along with friend Errol Crasta during the lockdown - informs us that their infusion mixes are handcrafted, and are economical as a 500 ml kit can yield 10 to 12 drinks. "Infusion is basically extracting flavours from ingredients such as fruits, herbs and spices, and imparting them to your alcohol," he says. Each kit packs in an infusion bottle, mix, strainer, tasting card, coaster, cloth bag and a handbook of recipes and food-pairing ideas. Choose from the fragrant, sweet, citrus-y Florified Indigo, or the fruity Laidback Scarlet. "Add gin into our bottle and wait for a few hours for the ingredients to give out flavour," Kutty explains.
Log on to: @otane.in on Instagram
Cost: Rs 625 in Mumbai

Slow wonder

"While cocktail mixes are ready-to-drink punches that can be added to your glass, they're sometimes packed with high sugar content. With gin infusion, you actually get to learn to make something and spend 24 hours watching it transform," explains Anjali Batra, founder, Food Talk India and Gin Explorers Club, about gin infusion, which she adds, is in tune with the concept of slow living that has picked up amid the pandemic. Their kits include recipe cards, 10 luxury botanicals such as hibiscus, mango, lemongrass, lavender, strawberry and more and infusion bottles - which can be used to create five heady punches - along with a tote.
Log on to: insider.in
Cost: Rs 1,500

Tea-riffic idea

Here's a hat-tip to the atmanirbhar home bartender who evolved amid the pandemic. Tea Trunk's botanicals cocktail kit comes with a handy cocktail shaker and peg measurer. "Folks who were missing their bar cocktails got experimental at home. None of us were prepared for the first lockdown, so many didn't have a simple cocktail shaker and started improvising using basic kitchen ingredients. This gave us the idea to make a kit. We put in a bar snack, some of our teas such as lavender, blue pea flower and hibiscus, and also provided three recipe cards," shares tea sommelier and founder Snigdha Manchanda.
Log on to: teatrunk.in
Cost: Rs 999 onwards