Quarantine cocktails: Forage in your pantry to spice up a ‘sustainable’ drink

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Sustainability in bartending is a phenomenon the world over, with the best bartenders trawling through their backyards to pick ingredients that go into interesting new cocktails.

If the world of food can have nose-to-tail cuisine, then bartending can also be about root-to-fruit. The idea is to use root to flower or root to tip: develop cocktails focused on using every single part of an ingredient in the most efficient (and delicious) ways possible.

We spoke to bartenders heading some of India’s best bars as well as brand ambassadors of major spirit brands, for advice and interesting cocktail recipes using stuff from our pantry.

Harshit Agarwal, Mixologist, Four Seasons Hotel Bengaluru

Harshit Agarwal.

Agarwal believes that every pantry has some unconventional ingredients for cocktails, such as rice, jaggery, whey, coffee, or even rasam. “At Copitas (the bar at the hotel) we like to use local produce such as coffee from Coorg, micro-greens that have been grown locally, tender coconut water ... People love the connection to the surroundings and it makes for great storytelling. Resourceful, sustainable bartending is about harnessing the power of local, ethically-sourced ingredients.”

Jack Daniels with Jaggery and Curry Leaves

Ingredients

• Jack Daniels: 60ml
• Jaggery and Curry Syrup: 30ml
• For Garnish: Curry Leaf

• Grate the jaggery and add to a pan. Add three to four cups of water. Add the curry leaf.
• Stir until it melts completely.
• Boil it on a low to medium heat until it turns slightly thick.
• Add to Jack Daniels and garnish with a curry leaf.

Ingredients:

• Bacardi Carta Blanca: 60ml
• Rice water: 30ml
• Lime juice: 15ml
• Black pepper: 1 pinch
• Coriander leaves, chopped: 5-6 nos

• Shake it all up.
• Strain and serve with the garnish.

Nilesh Patel.

At home, Patel makes his Bloody Mary with tomatoes. “Some of the other ingredients easily available, especially during this time of the year, are watermelon, lime, mint and the fruit of the season— mango.”

SOCIAL has begun delivering pre-made mixers, which go into their signature cocktails, directly to your doorstep. “From the fiery Bloody Mary to the refreshing Dope Martini, the mixers are being prepared at select SOCIAL outposts in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, and can be ordered via Swiggy and Zomato.”

Some tips on how to be sustainable at home: “Once you squeeze the juice of a lime, the skin and flesh can be preserved and used in pickles and other sauces. At SOCIAL, we use pineapple for garnish and the remaining stock and skin of the fruit is used in making Tepache, a fermented beverage, which can be sweetened either with brown sugar, seasoned with powdered cinnamon and served cold.”

Classic Bloody Mary

 Ingredients

• Fresh tomato juice
• Lime juice
• Salt
• Black pepper powder
• Worcestershire Sauce
• Tobasco

• Mix the ingredients and add Vodka to make a classic Bloody Mary.
• You can also add tequila instead of vodka and make it a Bloody Maria.

• Fresh watermelon juice
• Lime juice
• Sugar syrup
• Triple Sec

Asmani Subramanian, Luxury Portfolio Brand Ambassador, South India, Diageo

Asmani Subramanian.

“To make stunning cocktails at home, I would recommend sweeteners such as brown sugar, honey, jaggery, jams, jellies, preserves, coffee and tea infusions (lotus, chamomile, butterfly blue pee, spearmint), spices, apple cider vinegar and white wine vinegar, which is an excellent substitute for lime juice. My favourite, though, is the good range of salts,” says Subramanian.

The provenance of the ingredients has come to define food and wine in current times. “The freshness, flavours and taste of these ingredients help compliment the flavours of your drink. Using flowers as a garnish on a drink enhances your cocktail experience, for instance.”

Subramanian says he spent his childhood in Ooty, where he had the opportunity to relish the fresh produce grown in the neighbourhood. “The ingredients you find at home are not just economically viable, but also add a zing to the drinking experience.”

Ketel One Espresso Martini

Ingredients

• Ketel One vodka: 50ml
• Espresso: 45ml or Filter coffee decoction: 30ml
• Sugar or jaggery syrup: 15ml

Shake all the ingredients with ice and fine strain into chilled glasses. Garnish with three coffee beans.

Tanqueray Breakfast Martini

Ingredients

Tanqueray London Dry: 50ml
Lime juice: 15ml
Honey: 10ml
Orange marmalade: 1tsp

Method

• Shake all the ingredients with ice and fine strain into chilled glass.
• Garnish with an orange twist and a bread toast.

Angad Singh Gandhi.

“Some of the most popular cocktails are made using the simplest of ingredients,” insists Angad Singh Gandhi.  “A combination of a sweet and citrus flavour can be added to the spirit of your choice to create a classic cocktail. The key is to ensure a balance between both these elements.”

For a sweet flavour, he suggests working with sugar syrup (1:1 ratio of sugar and water), jaggery, honey, Demerara sugar, chocolate syrup, or even sweet syrup such as Roohafza or a juice. “To add a zing of citrus flavour to your drink, look for fruits and vegetables such as lemon, sweet lime, oranges, pineapple or tamarind. Top this with soda or tonic water to make it refreshing and easy to drink. “

For innovative cocktails made at home, he recommends opening up your pantry and looking for herbs, spices, fruits and other ingredients.

In 2019, Glenfiddich launched a unique single malt curation, called the Glenfiddich Experiments, which handpicked exotic ingredients from across India to create elixirs. Comprising of three exceptional elixirs—Bitter Sweet Symphony, Dufftown Confluence and Sweet Obsession—by bringing together ingredients such as the fragrant Mysore jasmine, spicy Malabar clove, Kerala black pepper, cinnamon from the Western Ghats, bitter orange from Nagpur, peach from Kashmir and spiced coriander from Karnataka, to create the perfect background for aromatic elevation.

Most of these ingredients are easily available and can be part of your cooking and bartending arsenal. “It’s really about rethinking convention and moving towards a more inventive and conscious approach to bartending.”

Fiddich Fashioned 

In this new spin to the classic Old Fashioned with Glenfiddich 12YO, decadent chocolate meets coffee.

Ingredients 

• Glenfiddich 12: 60ml
• Honey cinnamon syrup: 15 ml
• Angostura bitters
• Orange peel

• Recipe of Honey Cinnamon Syrup: Boil equal parts of honey and water and two to three cinnamon sticks in it on the low sim, and allow the flavour of cinnamon to get infused in the liquid.
• Pour the whisky over ice in a mixing glass and add the honey cinnamon syrup and three dashes of Angostura bitters.
• Stir well and strain in a rock glass over ice.
• Garnish with orange peel/ cinnamon stick

Ian Sedwell.

While every home pantry has some common ingredients, in most homes you will discover a few gems, for instance, jaggery, kaffir lime, Gondhoraj lemon, cinnamon, fresh pineapple, fresh mangoes, ginger and honey. “Just remember, if it works in the kitchen, it will work in the bar,” says Sedwell.

Pineapple cooler

Ingredients

• Ginger
• Chilli
• Fresh pineapple
• Honey
• Ginger Ale or Soda
• Any preferred whisky

Method

• Add a slice of ginger, a small slice of chilli and a cube of pineapple in a glass.
• Gently press all the ingredients to release the flavours.
• Add your preferred whiskey and a teaspoon of honey to it.
• Add ice and top with ginger ale or soda.

Ingredients

• Star anise
• Cinnamon
• Cloves
• Honey
• Fresh cut fruits – orange/ watermelon/ apple
• Orange juice
• Red wine

Method

• In a 1 litre jug or container add some star anise, cinnamon, cloves and 150ml of honey.
• Add fresh-cut fruit such as orange, watermelon and apple to it.
• Add 50ml orange juice and 750ml of red wine.
• Place it in the refrigerator for a minimum of two hours before serving.
• Serve over ice in a wine glass.

Sarita Sharma.

Just about anything goes into Sarita Sharma’s recipes: cinnamon, green cardamom, black pepper, bay leaf, red chilli, cumin seeds, coffee, tea leaf, jaggery, honey, lime, ginger, mint, green coriander, green chillies, curry leaf, dry or fresh coconut, egg, tomato, bell pepper, cucumber, raw mango, ripe mango, pineapple, watermelon, orange, banana, hibiscus flower, rose petal. Phew!

“I would suggest creating cocktails with Indian flavours as there is a whole pantry to explore. Fresh seasonal fruits can be used to make the puree, which can be refrigerated for days.”

Sharma allays fears that sustainable bartending is complicated, a view held by most people she says. “It is not all about using decompose straw and stirrer sticks. It is about ethically sourcing all the ingredients used in making cocktails; for instance, using local tonic water that helps reduce the carbon footprint, and using locally-sourced ingredients and products. Replace Maraschino cherry, which comes from Croatia and is used for garnish, with a local variety.”

Perutini

Recreate Indian childhood memories with this nostalgic martini. Peru or guava is relished with a pinch of salt and red chilli powder by children across India. Perutini is a guava-flavoured martini.

Ingredients

• Beefeater Gin: 45ml
• Martini Extra Dry: 10ml
• Guava Saccharum: 60ml
• Saline Water: ½ bar spoon
• Sugar Syrup: 10ml

• Pour all the ingredients in a mixing glass.

PDT (Please don't tell)

An aromatic cocktail that is disguised as a tea, it has ingredients such as chamomile tea and freshly squeezed pineapple, paired with tequila.

Ingredients

• Camino Gold: 45ml
• Chamomile tea and pineapple concoction: 60ml
• Lime Juice: 20ml
• Honey syrup: 20ml

• Pour all ingredients in a shaker.
• Shake it well and strain it in a glass/teapot.

Even the most basic ingredients can result in delicious drinks. You can use Monkey 47, lime and honey to make a prohibition-era cocktail called the Bee’s Knees. Coffee and Absolut vodka can be the base for an Espresso Martini —a great pick-me-up. If you have maple syrup or pancake syrup, you can blend it to with Jameson whiskey for a classic Old Fashioned or a Whiskey Sour.

A few sustainable tips for home-made cocktails: Make a citrus stock out of used lemon halves, ginger cordial out of ginger peels, or mint syrup out of mint stems and discards.

Bee’s Knees

• Monkey 47 Gin: 60ml
• Fresh lemon juice: 20 ml
• Honey syrup: 15 ml honey mixed with 1tsp warm water
• Lime, to garnish

Method

• Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add the gin, lemon juice and honey syrup and shake well.
• Strain into a chilled coupe or martini glass. Garnish with a lime twist.

Ingredients

• Jameson Irish Whiskey: 60ml
• Maple Syrup/Pancake Syrup: 1 tsp
• Angostura orange or regular Bitters: 2-3 dashes
• Orange peel, to garnish

• Mix whiskey, maple syrup, bitters and 1tsp. water in an old-fashioned glass, until the syrup is dissolved.
• Add a single large ice cube or lots of ice and give it a quick stir for 4-5 seconds.
• Garnish with orange peel.