While flair bartending has been around for decades as a combination of performance art and mixology, a pioneering brand of a single malt whisky is trying to shake up the scene further with its ‘experiments.’ By Asmita Sarkar
When you walk into the Dhan Mill compound through a tightly controlled gate that keeps taxis out, you know that you’re walking into an exclusive space. The OddBird Theatre is at the end of a lane and you can almost miss it. Located right next to a cafe, inside the theatre you see a small lobby that leads up to an open floor space. On this evening, the theatre was decked up for the third season of the World’s Most Experimental Bartender competition.
Six small island tables were personalised by each team to represent their concept. The bartenders from across India had teamed up with a chef, musician, photographer, designer, perfumer and illusionist. The bartenders came from across the country. The competition sought to push them beyond flair, in which they use bar tools like cocktail shakes, liquor bottles to take the simple shake and stir to juggling, flipping and manipulating flaming liquor. It is as thrilling for the customer looking on as for the person performing. But this is not just flair bartending. It is about creating a multi-sensory theatre of experience woven around the essence of your favourite potion.
“This is about experimenting and creating an experience for the consumer beyond the glug. For example, a comedian makes a joke about a drink you have ordered, somebody could sing a song around it or a chef could prepare an ice cream out of the drink and create a zany cocktail. This competition was supposed to push the boundaries of what a whisky or a cocktail can do. In different countries, they have different kinds of collaborators, from a barber to a shoemaker to a designer to a painter. Last time, when I went to Taiwan I saw people making edible art using whisky. The winner from India will be competing at a global stage and the winner there performs globally,” says Angad Singh Gandhi, India brand ambassador of Glenfiddich.
The first team used perfumes with cocktails to overpower the senses. Their take on the speyside scotch was in putting together a scented cocktail. “A perfume-based cocktail has never been attempted before,” said mixologist Soumyadipta and perfumer Rajiv Sheth. Each cocktail is based on a fragrance, which is perfect for a certain time of the day. We also met Krsna Mehta, the designer, whose team wanted to honour Kerala, so their decor and presentation included banana leaves and flowers laid out in the shape of a houseboat. A visual display also accompanied Anushka Menon and Ami Shroff’s cocktail. Menon, a photographer, strung up a series of polaroid shots to show the process of making the drink they presented. Another duo, Chef Saby Gorai and mixologist Sanchayan Jana, both from east India, infused their drink with their culture. They used a herb called roselle, which is easily available in that part of the country. “He wanted to do this butter-washed vanilla whisky, for which we used white butter. My journey took me through Assam and the Northeast where Roselle grows very wildly. I have been using it for jam, chutney and preserves. It’s 100 per cent organic and edible. It belongs to the rose family, has a sour taste and can be used as a breakfast brew. So I said why not try a roselle bitter out of it?” which the mixologist did. “It’s bright red and we’ll top the drink with the Glenfiddich deer made with butter. We might rim the glass with roselle sugar to balance the sourness of the herb,” Gorai said. They garnished the deer with a paintbrush since Jana is the artiste in this space and dusted with roselle. The winning duo, musician Sonam Kalra and Rohan Matmary, said that it was easy and smooth like whisky working with each other. Their cocktail, Zaara, an Urdu word meaning “particle,” revolved around the message that regardless of its proportion in the recipe, each ingredient is equally important to create the right balance. The cocktail was a heady mix of Glenfiddich 12-year-old, infused with cranberry, tiny tangerines, egg white and sage infusion, hibiscus, and rhubarb which resonated well with the fruity and floral notes of the single malt whisky. The mixologist mixed these seemingly disparate elements together, just as Sonam harmoniously blended beautiful melodies with poetry.
“Rohan took inspiration from the kind of music that I make and I make music with a message. I have created the Sufi Gospel Project, which is an attempt to take the voices of many diverse faiths and try and create one universal voice,” Kalra said. The message was that you can find your truth anywhere, a temple, a church, a mosque or a shrine and each truth is equally valid.
The competition is a push towards a kind of bartending that is nascent at the moment and is an offshoot from flair bartending, which has been around since the 1990s. It is about combining showmanship and mixology together.