Tried this at Portland’s East India Co. bar. Unique concoction with very Indian touch to flavor and aroma.

Called “Tamarind Ginger Tantra”, this drink is made from Peach Schnapps, Ginger infused vodka, tamarind, date and sprite.

Inspired by the drink made in East India Co bar in Portland that I wrote of this week. As reported before, this has tamarind (I used paste), ginger, date, vodka and peach schnapps. Note that the bar had used ginger infused vodka. I used fresh ginger to get a better flavor.

The taste came out pretty good.

Last week, when I was in Portland, I went back to East India Co and made friends with Cain at the bar there. After letting him know that I loved the Tamarind Ginger Tantra – which was his favorite drink, I asked for his second favorite. Went with the Rangpur Chill.

This is Rangpur Chill with a slight variation. It has Tanqueray Rangpur gin, muddled Indian chillies, cucumber and sweet and sour. Additionally, I threw in a little of UV’s Sriracha Vodka to have a heightened smell of spice without making the drink too spicy. Rangpur is an area in Bangladesh which is famous for its limes. (actually tastes like limes but more orange-y in color). The gin is infused with it.

After a long time, found a good cocktail recipe. For the folks not conversant in Hindi, “Ganne” means “Sugarcane”. I had accompanied Sharmila for some Indian grocery shopping yesterday. While aimlessly wandering around, saw a can of sugarcane juice and picked it up without sparing any second thoughts.

Finding a good cocktail with sugarcane juice was much harder than I thought. Sugarcane is such a tropical thing that most literature on mixology in the Western world has not much mention of it. There were a couple of sites that used rum.

Eventually, found one from the Indian channel NDTV’s website. The name of the cocktail is from them. I just changed up the process a little.

1. Roast some cumin seeds and grind them (enough to make a couple of pinches). Sharmila already had ground roasted cumin seeds. So, that part was easy for me. If you are from India, you might like it with more pronounced effect of the cumin seed than the website suggests.

2. Wet the rim of a lowball glass with a slice of lemon. Put some “kala namak” (Himalayan pink salt / Bengalis will know it as “beetnoon”). My father in law had brought some in 2014 and we still have it in our pantry. Put a couple of cubes of ice in the glass.

3. In a mixing glass, put in 1.5 oz of vodka, 2-2.5 oz of sugarcane juice, a couple of pinches of the ground, roasted cumin powder and a couple of drops of lemon juice.

4. In the second round, I added a small pinch of “kala namak” too. The added pungency and the faint salty after taste was better for me.

5. Shake the whole thing and then pour in the lowball glass.

For me, it was one of the best cocktail. The cumin and rock salt had a pronounced nose, the sugarcane with the rock salt had a good palate and the slightly salty aftertaste with the cumin length made it very enjoyable!!

Continuing with the India themed cocktails.

Muddle a couple curry leaves with a few drops of lemon juice with a muddler. Add ice, Himalayan pink salt, 3-4 ounces of rasam (strain out everything other than the liquid) and 2 ounces of vodka. Shake and pour in a cocktail glass. Spring some dried and powdered cumin seeds from the top in the end.

Sharp to the tongue and very flavorful.

Found a unique ingredient – Spicy Tamarind Vodka!! Made by Smirnoff. I am sure my friends from India would love it. Made the first cocktail from a suggestion in Smirnoff’s website – Spicy Mangorita!

Used Tajin salt to rim the glass and 5 ounces of mango juice, quarter of lime juice and one and a half ounces of spicy tamarind vodka for the drink. Came out fairly well!!

“Hey, that cocktail matches your name!”
“That is because I created it!”

Last couple of trips to India, I had gotten to know Juhi. This time, I had not noticed her initially – those masks still make facial recognition tricky for me – but one of the nephews pointed out “Juhi didi na?“.

As I was talking to her, I noticed that the advertised cocktail at the bar of the Executive Lounge carried her name.

“Looks like a summer drink to me”, I said as I read the ingredients.
“Yes sir, best on a hot day.

“Let’s make two of them. And then I will take a picture of the drink with you.”

Sharmila and I both tried the drink.

It tasted great. The elderflower left very fragrant notes and the vodka was mild enough. Probably better suited for being by the pool in heat rather than in an air conditioned room though.

Lime juice, Soho Lychee liqueur, Tito’s vodka and lychee juice from the Indian store.

I picked this recipe up from the website of Jaan (maker of Paan liqueur). I changed it up to make a completely Indian ingredients drink. This has Gin (I used Jaisalmer Gin), Coconut Water (from India), Paan liqueur and lime juice.

The aroma of Paan is unforgettable.

As much as I liked it, I think this will go well with some anis based liqueur – like sambuca or licor beirao. Will try that next time.

Just to change up from all those Paan series cocktails, went with a Single Malt version. Used Rampur Single Malt Whisky from India with King ginger liqueur.

This is raw mango juice with a lot of Indian spices in it, vodka and some lime juice. Since I find the aftertaste of raw mango to be a little bitter, I added a tea spoonful of Triple Sec to cut the bitterness.

This is a personal concoction. Hence the difficult to pronounce name. Well, this has two parts.

The first is “Kairi Panha” – also known as “Aam Panna“. “Aam Panna” is a juice made of raw mangoes with some cumin seeds, rock salt, sugar and mint leaves added to it. This is a very refreshing and popular drink during the tropical summers of India.

Added 2 parts of that to one part of Cachaca. This is the most popular distilled spirit in Brazil made from fermented sugarcane. It is also the base alcohol for Brazil’s national drink – Caipirinha.

And to that I added some “bhaja masala” made by Sharmila. This is cumin seeds, coriander seeds, fennel seeds and then a bit of cardamom – dry roasted and then grounded to powder.

That was a perfect pick me up for the evening.

DJ sent me this recipe from an Instagram post. It basically has some Indian achar, vodka and ginger beer.

I used Bedekar’s garlic achar with mixed results. Sharmila did not like it at all. I thought it was just okay. The biggest challenge is the oil in the achar that floats to the top. The initial sips are very oily to the lips. (you can see the red oil floating in the picture)

Tomorrow, I will try with a different achar and see if that makes a difference.

This is the first of the Indian themed cocktails. It is take on the Purple Ruby. It has pomegranate juice (to give it the Indian touch, used Spicy Pomegranate juice), Honey liqueur (Barenjager), Lime juice and for Vodka, I used the Smoke Lab Classic Vodka from Punjab in India!!

Came out nice!

Done the old James Bond style except with mostly Indian ingredients … Jaisalmer Gin, Smoke Lab Vodka and Lillet Blanc!

Used some spicy pomegranate juice (Dabur’s Real brand from India), pomegranate flavored vodka (Smirnoff), a bit of orange liqueur and a couple of drops of lime juice.

Took two of the Bengali favorites – “Aam” (Mango) and “Paan” (betel leaves) and threw in this cocktail. Will go best on a summer evening but given that the temperatures rose up quickly in Atlanta today, I am going to consider this season appropriate!!

Ingredients are mango juice from Indian store, Jaan branded vodka and a few lime juice drops.

Having sugarcane juice laced with some lime juice and rock salt from the street side vendor was a big part of our growing up in India. Tried making a martini today with sugarcane juice. For this round, used ginger and tajin salt. For the alcohol, used gin. Might try vodka the next time – the nose was a bit flooded by the gin aroma.

Opened a fresh can of guava juice Sharmila had gotten from the Indian store. Picked up a recipe from the internet. Had not made a tequila based drink in quite some time!

Tequila, rum, lime juice, guava juice and agave.

This is a twist on the original Margarita recipe. First, I have used Tamarind juice. Growing up in a village in India, tamarind was one of those much sought-after things in the tree. It was always about who could throw a stone or stick to fell a bunch of them, and then the incredible squint in the eyes once the sharp, sweet, tangy, and sour taste exploded in the mouth.

In any case, I used a bit of lime juice with it, then, instead of the traditional tequila, went with mezcal to add earthy tones. Finally, topped up with Grand Marnier and Tajin salt for garnishing.

I am trying to make some cocktails with distinctly Indian theme. We will see how many I can come up with. Today’s was Khatta Meetha. This literally means “Sweet and Sour”.

Tamarind juice with Old Monk rum from India and sugar syrup. Garnished with a cinnamon stick.

By the way, did you know India has the highest per capita consumption of rum in the whole world?

The pursuit of making cocktails with an Indian theme continues. This Guava Cosmopolitan has Guava juice, Grand Marnier, and Smoke Lab vodka from Punjab.

Another one in the India themed cocktails. This one has Jodhpur Spicy Gin with Mango juice, orange liqueur, lime juice and sugar syrup.

Sorry for the terrible pun in the name but here is another India themed cocktail. This time, I used spicy jeera (cumin) soda, Indian vodka, ginger liqueur and some lime juice. Garnished with a spicy tamarind ball.