The Indian cocktail lab testing spirits to shape drinking trends around the world

Behind an elegant green terrazzo-style bar in Bengaluru, India, Neil Alexander is mixing what he says is a variation on a martini. But there isn’t any gin or vodka. Instead there is dukshiri – a Goan spirit made of coconut sap and infused with sarsaparilla roots, a plant native to India with the sweet aroma and textures of smoke. The vermouth is infused with cinnamon, cloves, star anise, bay leaf, coriander seeds and garlic, adding richer flavours than you would find in traditional bottles of the fortified wine. The soft-spoken bartender serves his cocktail, not with an olive or a twist, but with a garnish of cacao molasses “caviar” on a bay leaf. The drink tastes nothing like a classic martini, except for the dryness. Instead, it has a stunningly unique flavour of spice and nuttiness with herbal brightness from the vermouth. It is a recognisably Indian-flavoured combination that would pair well with fish curry or spicy seekh (meat) kebabs. Alexander is serving his drink at the Flavor Lab by the Good Craft Co., a lounge in Whitefield, an upmarket suburb of the tech-centric city. The place is a test lab of sorts for UK-based Diageo, one of the world’s largest spirits companies. It is using the lab to evaluate products that it can then market to an increasingly affluent audience in India and potentially the world. Diageo estimates a quarter of those who reach legal drinking age in the next five years will be from India. “You’re talking a hundred million new consumers in India, 25 per cent of the world’s legal drinkers over [the next] five years,” says Hina Nagarajan, chief executive officer of Diageo India. Since the Flavor Lab opened in September, visitors have had the opportunity to sample a couple of cocktails and three rums, whiskies and other dark, aged spirits that haven’t yet been released commercially. The tastings are free but must be booked. Consumer faces are changing, expectations are changing Vikram Damodaran, chief innovation officer at Diageo India The lounge is on the third floor of the Vydehi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre – a hospital. The reason for the unlikely location is that hospitals have a licence to handle high volumes of alcohol, albeit for medical purposes. The 20,000 sq ft (1,860 square metre) space is a maze of labs, tasting rooms and meeting spaces. The brightly coloured, modern decor belies the setting: the walls are turquoise with funky tiles, and two bar tables facing each other sport pink tops. The lab houses a maturation room with miniature wood casks and a small-batch distillery, which can produce up to 20 litres (5 gallons) of spirit, key to the research the company is doing. In the United States, its biggest market, Diageo is acquisitive – it buys spirit makers, famously including George Clooney’s Casamigos tequila for US$1 billion . But in India, the company sees an opportunity to build its own brands, making a research and development centre all the more crucial. “Consumer faces are changing, expectations are changing,” says Vikram Damodaran, chief innovation officer at Diageo India. “India has moved on.” That means switching “to a centre that actually [is] investing in long-term innovation, long-term research, consumer sciences, sensory sciences”. Now expert tasters travel from around India to critique Diageo’s latest concoctions. Regular visitors, too, are contributing to Diageo’s research in areas like preferred aromatics and flavours, helping the distributor of Johnnie Walker whisky and Smirnoff vodka explore future cocktail trends in India to put Indian craft spirits on the global map. Alexander’s recipes may be too sophisticated for average drinkers to make at home – he is a 25-year veteran of the business – but the drinks and the spirits they are based on do make their way to high-end restaurants and bars. The beverages also help persuade customers to spend more on Diageo’s top-shelf spirits around the world, particularly as the company’s “premiumisation” strategy has reached its limits in countries such as the US. Stretched by high interest rates and inflation, consumers are not trading up to expensive spirits like they used to. Now, “India is the No 1 whisky market in the world, the No 1 volume growth contributor to whisky”, says Diageo India’s Nagarajan. Historically, the country’s alcohol market has been dominated by whisky: since distiller Angus McDowell set up McDowell and Co. in India in 1898, Scotch has been an aspirational product there. After 1947, when India became independent, distilleries started popping up, offering a modestly priced option to consumers who couldn’t afford Scotch. As residents have got richer, Diageo’s newest whisky brand Godawan – which is also available to sample in the experience centre – has offered an alternative to coveted Japanese whisky and Scotches. India’s hot and humid weather speeds up the ageing process, bringing out richer, bolder flavours in a shorter period. A special edition of Godawan was named Single Malt Whisky of the Year at the London Spirits Competition this year. It cost £1,000 (US$1,255) when it was still possible to get hold of a bottle, ironically making it more expensive than many of the spirits it was produced to compete against. Diageo is now exporting Godawan to countries including the United Arab Emirates, the UK and the US. It’s really nice to see distillers working on quality spirits that help further the message of products from India being high-end Roni Mazumdar, co-founder of New York Indian-restaurant group Unapologetic Foods This craft segment is just 10 per cent of the US$17 billion whisky market in India, but it is growing more quickly than the sales of whiskies in the more mainstream segment, according to Damodaran. A bottle of Godawan retails for about £65 in the UK and about US$70 in the US, where you can find it on menus at many Indian restaurants, including the popular Dhamaka, where Diageo launched the brand in New York. “It’s not surprising that we’re seeing more single malts and other spirits coming from India,” says Roni Mazumdar, co-founder of Unapologetic Foods, which owns Dhamaka, noting the rise in authentic Indian restaurants around the city. “It’s really nice to see distillers working on quality spirits that help further the message of products from India being high-end, and we’re proud to serve them at our restaurants.” “I want to see Indian exceptionalism showing up. I want to see craftsmen, and I want to see artisans really show what they can do with different Indian ingredients, Indian raw materials,” says Damodaran. Apart from Godawan, Diageo India currently only exports “Indian-made foreign liquor” like Black Dog blended Scotch, with plans to create more offerings for drinkers globally. Diageo is also a minority investor in the maker of Indian agave spirit Maya Pistola and craft gin Hapusa, both of which are sold abroad. Back at Flavor Lab, Alexander is mixing a West Bengal-inspired cocktail made of gin, raw mangoes and mustard with pickled soy. The gin is infused with nutmeg and mace – “just to add a little dryness”, says the bartender. He highlights the room’s most prominent design feature, the green wall across from him decorated with rows of brightly coloured jars of pickled fruit and vegetables that give his drinks a lot of their distinctive regional flavours. The containers are filled with products like tomato and ginger ferment, banana blossom dusted with wild yeast, brined Indian gooseberries and light pink pickled onions, destined for a Gibson cocktail made with gin and dry vermouth. Payal Shah, co-founder of Bengaluru-based workshop and fermenting community Kobo Fermentary and a consultant to Diageo who created the collection, says the basis of these modernist drinks couldn’t be more traditional. “All our grandmothers have made this,” she says about Flavor Lab’s pickled produce. “This is a very Indian taste palate: you know, you wouldn’t normally consider mustard in your drink,” Alexander says. “I would recommend you get some of those mangoes in there.” Their sweetness offers a relief from the pungency of the mustard and gives what might have been an ordinary drink a distinctly Indian flavour.

The Indian cocktail lab testing spirits to shape drinking trends around the world

Flavor Lab in Bengaluru serves Indian whisky, riffs on martini and more to help spirits giant Diageo predict the habits of a new generation