It’s not long before an Indian city is the next cocktail capital of the world

Homegrown craft liquor, savvy bartenders, and a growing, curious consumer base—India’s mixology industry has hit the trifecta. But with a little more flaring, it could go global

Lately, Yangdup Lama has been serving cocktails with sandalwood syrup no matter where he is in the world. “I served it in Korea some weeks ago, and the people were amazed,” says the co-founder of Sidecar, the hottest bar in New Delhi these days. “They were like, we’ve never tried a cocktail so delicious—and that was purely because it was a new flavour for them.” 

Lama is on the phone from Dickwella in Sri Lanka where he has just finished a guest shift at Smoke & Bitters, nominated one of Asia’s best bars in 2021, and where his chandan-infused drink received a similar response. “We call it the Sadar Bazaar; it’s part of the new Delhi-inspired menu at Sidecar. Along with sandalwood syrup, it has a bit of cognac and orange blossom water, and it is always garnished with lachha supari.” 

The ‘Sadar Bazaar’ is Lama’s take on the sidecar, the classic cocktail born at the end of World War I. In its use of aromatics like sandalwood and the betel nut, a condiment most commonly associated with paan, it is also unwittingly a metaphor for how far the craft of cocktail making has evolved in the past decade or so in India. 

A fine balance

“In 2010, the cocktail scene [in India] was still at its grassroots level,” says Anand Virmani, co-founder and CEO of Nao Spirits, the maker of Greater Than, Hapusa and Broken Bat gins. “ You’d go to a cocktail competition, and consistently, you’d find a paan- or a saunf-flavoured drink. They used to be so over-the-top. And their creators would be like, this is India in a glass,” he laughs. “But over time, we’ve refined our palate, and the stuff that mixologists and bartenders make now are less blown out of proportion. There is balance.”

Anyone who’s of age and not living under a rock knows that India’s mixology scene is bubbling over with newness and activity. All too frequently, you hear of a new bar throwing its doors open in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Goa, Jaipur, Pune,or Bengaluru. Cocktails, not beer or a dance floor, are at the heart of their offerings. They are driven by a new generation of star bartenders—highly skilled and well-travelled—who are muddling up a storm with globally-trending techniques, local ingredients and, often, homegrown craft liquor.

A discerning consumer base

What began as a novelty when the legendary speakeasy-style bar PCO began to pour in New Delhi in 2012, is now a full-blown, well-connected industry with its own ecosystem of distributors, investors, and large-scale consumer-facing events like the India Cocktail Week or Gin Explorers Club. Celebrated mixologist Shatbhi Basu’s school STIR! Academy has been around for 26 years now. 

“It’s the best it has ever been,” says “Druid” Arijit Bose, co-founder of Countertop, a bar and beverage consultancy. “A lot of the owners now understand what it takes to make a worthy bar; it’s not just about taking a beautiful place and letting it run and hoping for the best.” 

Lama, Bose and Virmani all point to technology, social media and a well-heeled generation of consumers that have made this possible. “They are travelling,” says Bose. “They are seeing bars [across the globe], and there’s a level of hospitality they expect here now.” They aren’t just shooting tequila or asking for cosmopolitans, mojitos or blue-coloured drinks. “I remember when Perch Delhi had just launched,” says Virmani, who worked there as a wine and marketing consultant, “people would come in asking for a specific gin, tonic and garnish. Just the fact that they cared was eye-opening.”  

A matter of prestige

And then there’s the international prestige. Sidecar and Tesouro—Bose’s pandemic-born Goa venture that is now defunct and remembered fondly—made it to the World’s 50 Best Bars list 2022. Both bars, along with New Delhi-based Hoots, also figure prominently on another list, Asia’s Best Bars. “Awards like this are always political,” says Virmani, “but now we have all agreed to accept that World’s 50 Best Bars holds importance.” Since the organisers have realised this too, the list’s jury and attention has moved away from its focus on London.  

Last year, at number one was Paradiso in Barcelona, which Bose describes as a “narrow, small bar that always has a line outside”. There were two other Barcelona-based bars on the list—Sips and Two Schmucks—which effectively announced the Catalonian city as a cocktail capital to the world. “It’s not like good bars didn’t exist before, or don’t exist elsewhere,” says Virmani. “But the list does act as a guide for the traveller-consumer, who will likely refer to it rather than TripAdvisor for that unique Barcelona experience. If they’re in the area, they’ll want to see what else is around. They will then post about it, and more interest will be generated, and it spirals that way.”

One need only look at the first-ever list of 30 Best Bars in India, released last year, to grasp the expanding scope, from New Delhi to Goa, Jaipur to Pune. But how long before we hear that the next new cocktail capital of the world is in India? “I’d reckon about five years,” says Bose. “There’s a lot of ground to cover. There’s a Latin saying, ‘esse quam videri’, which means ‘to be and not seem to be’. We seem to be good right now, but in five years, I think we might actually be really good—when it isn’t three or five bars, but 20 bars across a city.”

Beyond drinks

At Tesouro, attention to detail (listerine and deodorant in the bathrooms), customer comfort and the desire to build a community, not just a pitstop for travellers, along with considerable confidence in their bartending skills all came into play. But now, Bose, who has also worked at 28 Hong Kong Street in Singapore and is one of the names behind Lover’s Rum, believes that India’s real USP in the F&B space is manpower. 

“When people come to us asking for a recommendation on good mixologists, we tell them, forget about that,” he says. “You need to find a team. At the end of the day, your floor staff sells 70 per cent of your food and drinks each night. Two drinks down, people care about having a good time, and your staff can achieve that. For us, the outfits who’ve really focused on this are Bombay Canteen, O Pedro, Americano, Izumi and Veronica’s [all in Mumbai]. You can’t pinpoint a person or a dish, you remember the whole team.”   

The significance of storytelling 

Lama, whose team works especially hard to show the history and culinary range of the capital city to guest bartenders, thinks that Indian mixologists’ advantage might be the diversity of flavour palates, ingredients and spaces at hand. “Today, when I go out and travel the world, visit bars and bartenders, we do not talk about Manhattans and Old Fashioneds,” he says. “I come from Darjeeling, so I talk about tea because I’m comfortable making tea cocktails. It’s original; I haven’t read a book, I’ve felt and experienced and feel confident about incorporating it. It adds a story and a lot of originality.” 

But at the same time, Lama says, what you could get in Darjeeling is very different from what you could get in Mussoorie; and what you could get at The Savoy’s 150 year-old Writer’s Bar will be nothing like the iconic Harbour Bar in Mumbai, or any of Goa’s new high-concept bars like Miguel’s or Petisco. “It’s where great stories come into play.”

Story, technique, flavour, character—it could be any one of these things that, when really committed to, could push a bar into a whole new league, says Virmani. “Take Joseph’s,” he says, referring to the tiny, 1970s-era watering hole in Panjim’s Fontainhas quarter. “It is potentially the most popular bar in Goa. Why? It’s small, cramped, and dingy. It’s hard to get a table. Except for that one tambde rosa, they don’t even do cocktails.” 

“It’s the character of that one individual,” Virmani continues, referring to the bar manager Gundu, a local legend who chain-smokes, hands rosebuds to girls who walk in, and shouts at his regular clientele when they’re being unruly. “He’s like the soup nazi in Seinfeld. But that’s him, that’s his identity, his storytelling and that’s the place. If he was asked to change all of this, he probably would, but then Joseph’s would lose something vital.”

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