Picante, martini, Tommy’s margarita and Shoyu Ramen — classic cocktails with a new twist and brand-new mixed drinks with eclectic ingredients and premium liquor are keeping bars busy. Restaurants and bars are focusing on their own menu with unique cocktails featuring exotic ingredients as well as local flavours.
Drinks with indigenous ingredients like red cabbage, kari patta, jamun, mangoes, mango chilli and gondhoraj lemon are increasingly becoming crowd favourites. A highend speakeasy bar in Bengaluru offers a cocktail called Shoyu Ramen, named after the popular Japanese noodle dish and made with shiro miso, shoyu, tequila and sake. Veer Chhetri, head mixologist at a Goa bar, said a lot of customers walk in asking for picante, a tequila-based cocktail served first at London’s Soho House Club in 2012.
“We don’t even have picante on our menu, we are a rum forward bar,” he said.
“We make our version of it. That cocktail needs 10 different ingredients.” Consumers who were already drinking premium alcobev are driving the trend for out of home consumption, activated by cocktails and bars. Most of these cocktails are priced between Rs 500 and Rs 1,500. The cocktail bars, “where the primary menu is of the bar”, have increased by 40% in India’s top cities between fiscal years 2022 and 2024, said Vikram Achanta, chief executive of Tulleeho, the company that puts together the 30 Best Bars India ranking.
While cocktails are enjoying a spotlight among Indian consumers, the premiumisation push that alcobev companies have been making since the pandemic is driving the trend. Retail stores may generate sales, but brands are built on bar shelves, say industry executives.
The more expensive the liquid, the more unknown it is to most consumers about how to drink it. And bars with the help of their cocktails are like the connection between the brands and the end consumers, as they educate the consumer on how to drink premium liquid.
“Unlike before where bars would only serve classic cocktails, the new-age bartenders are making their own cocktails, their own products if you may call them. And our products help them to make their products,” said Anand Virmani, cofounder of Nao Spirits, the parent company of Greater Than and Hapusa gin.
With just 80,000 liquor vends and shops in India, distribution expansion isn't really an option for companies. “While the retail off-trade channel is alarge contributor to sales, it is in the on-trade — bars, restaurants, clubs, etc, where brand equity is built for the long term when mixologists curate experiences. Hence for us, bartenders and mixologists are key stakeholders in building brand equity,” said Vinay Golikeri, managing director at Bacardi India.
ABD Maestro, a new subsidiary of Allied Blender and Distillers started with Ranveer Singh as a creative and business partner, is increasing its engagement with the bartender community, said managing director Bikram Basu.
The number of mixologists that are working with brands have swelled too. The number of mixologists Diageo, which sells Johnnie Walker whisky and Smirnoff vodka, is working with has risen to 746 now from 86 in 2021. The count has doubled to 100 at Radico Khaitan, which owns the Rampur Indian Single Malt whisky and Morpheus Blue premium brandy brands.
It is also emerging as a rewarding career choice. Mixologists are making anywhere from Rs 15,000 while starting out to Rs 90,000 per month in five to six years, depending on their skills and experience which includes working at casual bars, dive bars, speakeasies and bars in luxury hotels.
Drinks with indigenous ingredients like red cabbage, kari patta, jamun, mangoes, mango chilli and gondhoraj lemon are increasingly becoming crowd favourites. A highend speakeasy bar in Bengaluru offers a cocktail called Shoyu Ramen, named after the popular Japanese noodle dish and made with shiro miso, shoyu, tequila and sake. Veer Chhetri, head mixologist at a Goa bar, said a lot of customers walk in asking for picante, a tequila-based cocktail served first at London’s Soho House Club in 2012.
“We don’t even have picante on our menu, we are a rum forward bar,” he said.
“We make our version of it. That cocktail needs 10 different ingredients.” Consumers who were already drinking premium alcobev are driving the trend for out of home consumption, activated by cocktails and bars. Most of these cocktails are priced between Rs 500 and Rs 1,500. The cocktail bars, “where the primary menu is of the bar”, have increased by 40% in India’s top cities between fiscal years 2022 and 2024, said Vikram Achanta, chief executive of Tulleeho, the company that puts together the 30 Best Bars India ranking.
While cocktails are enjoying a spotlight among Indian consumers, the premiumisation push that alcobev companies have been making since the pandemic is driving the trend. Retail stores may generate sales, but brands are built on bar shelves, say industry executives.
The more expensive the liquid, the more unknown it is to most consumers about how to drink it. And bars with the help of their cocktails are like the connection between the brands and the end consumers, as they educate the consumer on how to drink premium liquid.
“Unlike before where bars would only serve classic cocktails, the new-age bartenders are making their own cocktails, their own products if you may call them. And our products help them to make their products,” said Anand Virmani, cofounder of Nao Spirits, the parent company of Greater Than and Hapusa gin.
With just 80,000 liquor vends and shops in India, distribution expansion isn't really an option for companies. “While the retail off-trade channel is alarge contributor to sales, it is in the on-trade — bars, restaurants, clubs, etc, where brand equity is built for the long term when mixologists curate experiences. Hence for us, bartenders and mixologists are key stakeholders in building brand equity,” said Vinay Golikeri, managing director at Bacardi India.
ABD Maestro, a new subsidiary of Allied Blender and Distillers started with Ranveer Singh as a creative and business partner, is increasing its engagement with the bartender community, said managing director Bikram Basu.
The number of mixologists that are working with brands have swelled too. The number of mixologists Diageo, which sells Johnnie Walker whisky and Smirnoff vodka, is working with has risen to 746 now from 86 in 2021. The count has doubled to 100 at Radico Khaitan, which owns the Rampur Indian Single Malt whisky and Morpheus Blue premium brandy brands.
It is also emerging as a rewarding career choice. Mixologists are making anywhere from Rs 15,000 while starting out to Rs 90,000 per month in five to six years, depending on their skills and experience which includes working at casual bars, dive bars, speakeasies and bars in luxury hotels.
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