Cocktails in India have always been on the sweeter end of the spectrum, but sometimes they’re intended to be dessert. We are all for it.
India has always been big on meetha. We need a sweet dose after every meal, whether it’s a mouthful or bite-sized. And when our cocktails are deliberately designed to be syrupy, we get more than just a sugar high.
While Indian cocktails have always been associated with sweeter profiles, Gesit Brewing Co.’s Assistant Beverage Manager, Revanth Buga, believes that “dessert-inspired cocktails are changing this narrative by offering a delightful fusion of sweet and savoury flavours and innovative techniques”.
Bars and restaurants are now exploring the wide variety of Indian desserts by not only bringing out sugary and chocolaty notes in a dessert-inspired cocktail but also elements like citrus and spice.
Here are five dessert-inspired cocktails that should be a part of your TDL (to-drink list). From kheer to coconut jam, we present some of the most confectioned cocktails across India at your table. Tell us: which one would you try?
Pandan Club’s Big Bandha (Manoj Padmanabhan) is a huge fan of badam halva and jalebi and believes that their rich, nutty flavours could be wonderfully captured in a cocktail. Read ghee-washed, saffron notes, the sweet and sour taste of jalebi. It’s already giving us a head rush.
But what Pandan Club does offer is Sinagpore’s much loved breakfast in a heady concoction of sweet, nutty, and bitter tasting notes. Kaya Toast with fragrant pandan and coconut jam, paired with hot coffee sees itself lavishly transformed into a rich dessert-inspired cocktail. Big Bandha believes that to turn a dessert into a cocktail, the dessert’s flavour profile should be considered and how those flavours can be translated into a drink. “The goal is to deconstruct the dessert’s elements and reimagine them into a liquid form, resulting in a cocktail that’s both familiar and innovative!”.
TT incorporates the technique of fat washing along with kaya bourbon, coffee bitters, and liquid sourdough capturing the richness and complexity of the breakfast into one velvety drink without overpowering the palate.
Pair it with – Pandan Club’s Coconut Vegetable Curry (Lemak Sayur) to bring out the creamy coconut and turmeric flavours of the curry. For a meaty pair, try their Black Pepper Lamb Curry with strong notes of black pepper, lemongrass, and pandan leaves.
Light, tangy, and a balanced citrus blend reminiscent of the sweet and tart lemon meringue, LM by Sorano is made with in-house limoncello liqueur and a touch of simple syrup. A refreshing summer cocktail but equally stirring is the perfect dessert-inspired cocktail.
Not all dessert cocktails have to be sweet. For a well-rounded and balanced drink, along with sweet flavours, other notes such as citrus, spiced, tangy need to be brought out. Sorano’s LM is a perfectly balanced dessert-inspired cocktail that brings forth the dessert’s character and depth by focusing on the sweet and tangy elements.
Pair it with – Sorano’s Bread Basket with freshly baked pesto rolls, hard rolls, grissini, and lavash served with chilli oil, butter, garlic and herb oil.
Geist Brewing Co. has a multitude of dessert-inspired cocktails, from replicating a mysore pak with a ghee and gram flour-based whiskey wash cocktail to incorporating the breakfast of Southeast Asian royals with notes of coffee and pandan. But, since the season of mangoes is coming to an end, why not close it with a sticky treat?
GBC’s inspiration comes from reimagining traditional ingredients and combining them with their own creative twist of flavous and notes. The same can be reflected in the Mango Sticky Rice cocktail. Crafted with a creamy in-house mango rice liqueur and the crisp bite of vodka topped with a coconut foam brings forth a sweet, malty, tropical palate that ties the entire experience together. The driving home factor is the garnish – a coconut sticky rice ball and a fresh slice of mango. GBC believes that the texture and the flavour need to strike a balance by drawing upon the components of the dessert.
Pair it with – GBC recommends dishes that have “vibrant, spicy, and tangy” notes. Pair the cocktail with their Meena Manga Curry, a raw fish mango curry from their summer menu. Add a dollop of GBC’s Doro Wat & Mango Coriander Chutney, with berbere spice blend, to bring out the tropical, fruity notes of the drink.
If you are not a vodka person (honestly, who isn’t?), Nara Thai does a whiskey-washed Mango Sticky Rice cocktail. Rosslyn Karpanam of Nara Thai tells us, keeping in mind the traditional and authentic flavours of Thai cuisine, “the primary focus is to incorporate key elements in the cocktail – like the fruity and nutty notes, ensuring a fresh and juicy flavour profile without excessive sweetness”.
Mango is equally loved by India and Thailand, so replicating a cocktail out of the dessert for their summer menu made perfect sense. Served with a single large ice cube, the MSR old-fashioned is an amalgamation of pisco, mango juice, mango puree, and coconut milk.
Nara Thai
Pair it with – Either dessert or spicy appetizers to balance the bold flavours. We recommend the Mango chilli fried rice.
We’ve heard of butter in coffee but butter-flavoured cocktail? We might just take our chances with this. Tulleeho is known for its bar lessons and experience alike, so we sidled up to Vikram Achanta, founder of Tulleeho, to find out about a dessert-inspired cocktail on his menu. He swears by 3 things – one, sweet, creamy, and rich flavours are perfect for a smooth, luscious base for a cocktail. Two, incorporating fruits – berries, citrus, pineapple – adds brightness and balances a drink’s sweetness. Three, adding warm, spiced, nutty flavours – cinnamon, nutmeg, hazelnut – brings depth and complexity to a cocktail.
Helming texture as a key component in a dessert-inspired component, Tulleeho’s Butter Fingers is a delectable blend of butter-infused peach schnapps and a vanilla wafer garnish poured over ice for a refreshing chill. Buttery, sweet with a hint of crisp is what a smooth cocktail should be made of.
Pair it with – Depending on whether you are looking to enhance your dessert experience or create contrasting palates, Vikram has listed a few options for an ideal cocktail pairing-
- Creamy espresso martini style cocktail with a tiramisu to balance intensity and texture
- Spiced and nutty cocktails with an apple pie
- A fruity brandy Alexander with chocolate truffles
- Pina colada style of cocktail (read tropical notes) with grilled shrimps and coconut macaroons
- Irish coffee with cheesecake