Why more Mumbai bartenders are adopting DIY methods to elevate the cocktail experience

The DIY spirit is raging among bartenders as they make their own macerations, liqueurs, tinctures and cordials to bring you a stand-out cocktail experience

The next time you visit a bar, ask the steward what’s cooking behind the scenes. It’s likely that dropper bottles of cordials and tinctures made from seasonal fruits, herbs and veggies; a new batch of flavoured infusions with base spirits; offbeat liqueurs or an in-house replication of flavour profiles essential ingredients such as vermouth, triple sec and Campari replicas are in the midst of being made. It is an exciting time to be a mixologist in Mumbai as bar menus are aiming high with DIY.

Last month, when Sachin Yadav consulted at Eve in Powai, he created an in-house gin using a small distiller. “To make gin, you need a neutral spirit such as vodka. To this, I’ve added over 10 botanicals such as chamomile, cinnamon, almond, warm wood and liquorice. The mixture is added to a distiller that you plug in and heat the contents. A fan on top of the equipment cools the vapour into liquid. I diluted the mixture with a juniper-flavoured hydrosol [flavoured water],” he explains with the precision of a chemist.

Sonam Rai, head mixologist of Cafe Panama; For Mama Maria at Cafe Panama

At Café Panama in Lower Parel, head mixologist Sonam Rai, 28, leads a tequila-forward bar programme. For the end of the year festivities, Rai has created a plum liqueur—alcohol infused with water and sugar, along with a base of fruit or cream. She has used winter spices to jazz up the fruity concoction. She also has a rhubarb liqueur in the making and a pickled strawberry and basil brine fermenting to use in festive winter cocktails.

“All you need is time and patience,” she says. “To clarify a cocktail, you must allow the liquid to pass through the filter, drop by drop, over two to three days. One has to preserve it accordingly and maintain a certain temperature. I  have used a Kyro filtration clarification, for which I mix the blanco tequila and mango puree, and blend them together. Then, I freeze it and put it in a coffee filter to drip. The result is a mango-bite pop of flavours in your mouth.” 

Sommelier Magandeep Singh points out the importance of bars that are pushing the limits  to experiment. “Creativity leads us to the next thing; it’s a stab at what’s to come,” says Singh. “Humble bar experiments can change what we will drink in the future. It also allows the industry to try things in smaller [batch] quantities. For example, it is not easy to gauge whether people will like, say, an oaked elderflower gin. But if made in a small batch, the bartender can try it on the guests and take a collective opinion to a brand that can then help commercialise [or tweak] it appropriately.”

They use clarification method to make a turmeric syrup along with mango (right) Plum Liqueur is made with fruit infused in water, sugar and tequila. Pics/Shadab Khan

Unlike before, bartending is no longer a second choice, but the first one for those who want to study chemistry. “Your skill improves, your knowledge perks up, and your delivery becomes precise and sharp,” he says. “Overall, this can help rid the bar worker profession of social stigma.” 

At Kala Ghoda’s Plural, bartender Sahil Gangurde steeps small batches of guava sacrum overnight with fruit pieces and sugar. “We press this by hand and strain it,” explains Gangurde. “Then we top it up with a Thai chilli-infused soda, also made in-house. To the leftover guava pulp, we add a little beetroot and blend. We use this to make a brush stroke on the glass, and the rest is dehydrated and rolled into fruit leather. The [resulting] gin cocktail called Guava Nice Day is a bestseller.” Run of the Dill is a spin on a classic stirred martini, which has gin, dill-infused vermouth, and a salty lemongrass and celery brine. 

Citrus G&T

At Pali Naka’s La Loca Maria, head bartender Dwayne Dmello takes pride in the multiple variations of the Negroni. The Loca version has a hibiscus-infused gin, vermouth-infused tea and a watermelon aperol, making it aromatic, and fruity instead of the distinct bitter note. For the Me Llama Maracuya, Demello makes a velvet falernum using Jamaican all-spice berries, cinnamon, neutral spirit, cloves, star anise, and cardamom. This is paired with vodka, passion fruit puree, Campari and lemon. 

His bar stocks bottles of gin infusions with berries, dry hibiscus flowers, and even sous vide infusions. He even makes his own triple sec using neutral spirit, orange zest and sugar for the margarita and cosmopolitan.

Berry G&T

When Americano launched in a quiet alley of Kala Ghoda in 2019, the selection of spirits, liqueurs, bitters, or other ‘liquid flavour modifiers’ was particularly limiting for its bar programme vision. Essential ingredients such as Campari and vermouth were either scarce or unavailable. “Out of necessity, we began to make our own syrups and infusions which could replace or, at the very least, mimic the original ingredients,” chef-owner Alex Sanchez says. For the White Negroni on his menu, the bar team has mimicked suze (a Swiss bitter aperitif) using bitter honey and saffron syrup. “The syrup is later mixed with gin to create our unique variation,” he reveals. “Another variation took birth after chef Nooresha Kably of  Izumi [Japanese restaurant] introduced us to yukari [dried red shiso condiment]. We now make a traditional Negroni and add a red shiso and pandan leaf infusion; it’s a fun approach to serving the classic drink.”

Bartender Sahil Gangurde adds basil oil to Run of the Dill drink, a spin on the classic stirred martini. The vermouth in the drink is infused with dill, and has a salty lemongrass and celery brine. Pics/Sameer Markande

But his personal favourite is the Space Monkey. “It’s a celebration of the banana, an ingredient not often showcased in cocktails,” says Sanchez. “We make a delicious banana jam and a banana infusion which is stirred into Cachaça, a Brazilian sugarcane spirit, right before serving. The fruitiness is offset by a stout syrup and Montenegro, an Italian bitter liqueur.”

This writer isn’t a fan of banana, but we cannot stop sipping the drink that comes looking like a milkshake, topped with coconut and almond dust. Another attempt at city bars is to eliminate waste, which is plenty given the volume of fruits and vegetables in use. Fresh lime juice goes bitter after a couple of hours and can no longer be used in a cocktail. “Simple things such as cucumber garnish or orange slices,” says Sanchez, “are turned into syrups or sherbets that can be used for up to two weeks. Unused fruit and vegetable garnish is dehydrated and used to make infusions.” 

Guava Nice Day has a guava sacrum and topped with an in-house Thai chilli infused soda right (below) Shroomster

Wine and spirit consultant, Ajit Balgi of The Happy High, says that infusions have been ruling for a decade, but new techniques like the recent use of sous-vide, nitrogen siphons and distillation equipment for making them in myriad flavours, are taking centrestage.” Balgi says what’s worrying are the gimmicks. “Sometimes, these experiments are hurried Google replications,” he says.

Sumit Patil, bartender at Americano, makes the White Negroni which has an inhouse suze (right) Space Monkey. Pics/Sameer Markande

“Look at Sidecar [Delhi’s ‘friendly neighbourhood bar] , which sticks to classics and signatures without modern jazz, but it is on the Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2022 list!” Sanchez agrees, but opines that with most bars having equal access to the same spirits, the only way to stand out is to “create flavours outside of the ones that exist in the bottle. Solid technique and good quality ice don’t hurt either”.

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