World Bartender Day: The approaches of mixologists behind their creations

Yangdup Lama: The ingredient, tradition and story approach

Celebrated as one of India’s most influential bartenders, he shaped cocktail culture long before it was mainstream. His philosophy, honouring ingredients, context and story, comes alive in Sekrenyi, inspired by Nagaland’s Sanctification festival.

The hero of the drink is Zutho, a traditional Angami rice beer, which is a humble, beloved ingredient that the region has brewed for generations. He pairs Zutho with roasted black sesame, aromatic bitters, and a soft foam that mirrors the purity and ritual of the festival. “Every ingredient has a journey,” he says, adding, “You taste the festival before you’re told about it.”

Ami Shroff: The theme and experience approach

As one of the most recognised flair bartenders and jugglers in India, she tells us that she learned the craft from watching videos on YouTube and different flair bartenders over the years. Talking about her approach when she is conceptualising or creating a new cocktail, she tries to keep in mind the theme or the story of the space or if the menu is dedicated to a particular theme inspired by something specific. One of her recent menus, for instance, was built entirely around colour. “There were these yellow and purple tones I had to play with,” she says. Instead of treating it as a limitation, she turned it into a playground, creating two cocktails that leaned into those hues, blending flavour and colour psychology into something playful and memorable.

And sometimes, the themes run deeper. Take her menu for London Taxi in Mumbai (closed now), where she was inspired by London’s icons and eccentricities. “We played with elements of London… Sherlock Holmes, pickling culture, English breakfasts,” she recalls. One crowd favourite was her pickled cocktail, a cheeky nod to London’s love for tangy, brined flavours. Another was the English Breakfast, which featured marmalade, English Breakfast tea, a side garnish shaped like a tiny sunny-side-up egg recreated using coconut cream and mango ‘yolk’ through molecular mixology.

At Blah! in Mumbai, she took a different route, transforming a brunch classic into a sip-worthy sensation. “I deconstructed and reconstructed a watermelon-feta salad into a cocktail,” she says. The result was a clarified cocktail using feta cheese, which gave it a subtle, savoury salinity. With clarified watermelon juice and hints of rocket leaves, it became, she says, “a brilliant liquid interpretation of a dish everyone recognises but no one expects in a glass.”

Santosh Kukreti: The method of hyper-regionality and global trends

His cocktails feel like little stories from the land, very nostalgic, grounded, and told with a bit of science. His three-part philosophy of hyper-regionality, modern technique, and mood-to-glass comes alive beautifully in one of his signature creations, like the cacao-shell cocktail. “I love digging into the terroir of a region,” he says, and he means it literally. The drink comes in a real cacao shell from Karnataka, instantly anchoring it to India’s cocoa and coffee belt. Inside, he uses 100% Indian Arabica, celebrating the land through flavour rather than theme.

But Santosh doesn’t stop at nature and brings in some technology. The cocktail is crowned with a liquid nitrogen–frozen 70% dark chocolate mousse, a dramatic, smoky flourish he calls the Dragon’s Breath. “That’s the modern technique part. Technique must feel like magic,” he says. Then comes the emotional layer, which is his ‘mood to glass’ element. The warm notes of house-made maple caramel and coffee liqueur create a nightcap-style richness that feels both comforting and also bit of a rebellious.

Varun Sudhakar: The concept to glass method

His drinks lean into clean profiles, layering and balanced flavour structures that feel like. Varun approaches cocktails like an artist curating an exhibition. “The starting point is always the moodboard,” he says. “Location, culture, architecture, season, the people and then everything flows from there.” His Canvas cocktail is the perfect example of this creative philosophy, which is a visual and sensory story of Kerala’s artistic roots. Built with bourbon, red wine, and bay leaf, the drink, according to him, is “woven from the threads of Trivandrum’s pristine art and culture intertwined delicately with the essence of local flavours.” Through this elixir, he pays homage to the captivating strokes of oil paintings, crafted decades ago in the realms of Raja Ravi Verma’s kingdom.

“We build everything from the ground up,” Varun explains. Base recipes come first. Then come the layers, including culinary cues, hyper-local touches, and architectural inspirations. The team keeps refining until the drink feels like it belongs to the bar’s identity.

Santanu Chanda: The minimal and flavour-forward method

A competition favourite, he has earned a reputation for precision, innovation and a sharp creative edge that sets him apart in India’s new-wave bartending scene. His approach lies in creating drinks which are minimalist-style but also flavour-forward. He often says that great cocktails don’t need ten ingredients; they need intention. And nothing captures this philosophy better than ‘Sixteen Century,’ a drink very close to his heart, and one that has drawn bartenders from around the world just to taste it.

Created as a team effort, on the surface, the drink looks simple: gin, saffron, lavender, and hung curd. But the magic lies in how Santanu expresses flavour with restraint. “It is a tribute to the ingredients that travelled through history to become part of India’s collective memory. When the Mughals arrived, saffron entered Indian kitchens and shaped the desserts we loved growing up, from rasmalai to kulfi. I keep the gin as the clean base, saffron for warmth, lavender for softness. Then my signature technique, a hung-curd wash and clarification that turns the cocktail crystal-clear while giving it an unexpectedly creamy, nostalgic mouthfeel,” he adds.

The drink has oo rasmalai and no kulfi, yet the sip feels like that.