Peel, Slice And Try: How To Experiment With Homemade Cocktails
Bar owner Rakshay Dhariwal on jazzing up drinks at home
By Team Foodstories
5-Minute Read
Gone are the days when a tiny umbrella on a cocktail glass signified the heights of creative mixology. From Van Gogh inspired artwork to mini desserts—like a slab of dark chocolate—to candy floss inspired foam, cocktail garnishes are becoming the veritable works of art, standing for a bartender’s ingenuity behind the counter.
So how do you incorporate this trend for your next home party? We asked Rakshay Dhariwal for some tips. Dhariwal is the genius behind some of India’s best and most cutting-edge bars like PCO and Saz and concepts such as India Cocktail Week, a festival dedicated only to cocktails. Most recently, Dhariwal launched Pistola, India’s first premium agave spirit.
While studying Marketing & Telecom at Indiana University, Dhariwal loved entertaining and constantly hosted parties at home. These parties, he says, sowed the seeds of his entrepreneurial journey by teaching him the basics of operating and running a bar. “When I moved back to India in 2007, I noticed that the cocktail culture in India was still very nascent. Most people did not understand what cocktails really were. It was all about syrupy, colourful, sugary drinks. That is when I realised that the real gap in the market was in showcasing classic, prohibition and pre-prohibition cocktails to consumers,” he says. And thus was born PCO, a bar that took the capital by storm. In a freewheeling conversation about his journey, cocktail making and his favourite drinks, Dhariwal shares his tips for hosting the ultimate home party with the best drinks. Read on for more:
What about running a bar and cocktail making do you enjoy the most?
Cocktail making and mixology is very much an art and what is very exciting is that it has begun to incorporate a lot of science as well. What I enjoy is the evolution of cocktails and how the trends in this field keep changing. Now bars are using equipment like centrifuges and rotovaps or rotary evaporators to impart new flavours and create new textures. The fact that this field has become so dynamic and diverse is what makes it a very exciting space to be in. India has never had more attention on itself as an important hub for cocktailing and it is exciting to be in this market at this point.
What flavours do you enjoy in your drinks? What are the unexpected flavour combos in a cocktail that have blown your mind?
While I think I can appreciate many different styles of cocktails, I personally really enjoy spirit-forward cocktails that celebrate the base spirit that is used and find interesting complementary ingredients. Recently, I have been enjoying savoury cocktails with unusual ingredients like seaweed and interesting takes on vegetables like beet and bitter melon.
What are the must-have garnishes home bartenders should be armed and ready with? How can we move beyond the standard mint and lemon garnish?
Dehydrated fruit wheels and whole spices make for good and aromatic garnishes. Fruit leathers are easy enough to make yet important because they allow you to use parts of fruits that are otherwise being discarded.
Can we create something interesting with just our kitchen items?
Absolutely! We can make wonderful cocktails with the fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices from our homes. You can use star anise and cinnamon for lots of added flavour in the winters, and in the summer, fruit rind and melons and cucumbers make great garnishes. For those looking for something a little different, homemade pineapple tepache is a sustainable easy drink to make by fermenting the rind of pineapple at home.
What is your personal favourite ingredient when it comes to creating a garnish? And what’s the one ingredient you can’t stand in a garnish?
I am a sucker for Campari dust. I love the bitterness it imparts on a cocktail. I cannot stand garnishes that get stuck on my lips. Aesthetics aren’t everything, despite us living in an Instagram generation!
How can I make a homemade cocktail look and taste nice at the same time?
The way to do it is to first build the cocktail to ensure it is flavourful and balanced. After that, you choose the glassware and that will help figure out which garnish is best suited. Sometimes simple garnishes on contrasting colour cocktails look very elegant and sometimes a simple cocktail can be presented with lots of drama and extra character to tell its story. Everything is possible— but the key is to focus on the actual cocktail first.
And finally, what are your at-home bartending tips that you can share with us?
Make sure your bar is well stocked and try different bases in your regular cocktails. Try a Pistola Resposado old-fashioned or a dark rum Manhattan. Don’t be afraid to experiment with garnishes— take anything from your kitchen, slice and peel it and try. It may work more often than you think.
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