Recipe: Refreshingly Simple Drinks

Diwali is days away. Plan your taash party menu with frothy concoctions by mixologist Sonali Mullick.

Omit the alcohol in each recipe to have unusual mocktails to offer too.

Lollyta

Serves: 1

Ingredients

• 60 ml white rum
• 40 ml strawberry puree (please see the note below)
• 4 kaffir leaves
• 20 ml sweet and sour mix, available online or at a liquor store
• 30 ml soda
• 100 gm ice
• Stout glass (please see the pic above)

To garnish

• Black pepper powder
• Fresh mint leaves
• Mango lolly or popsicle or bar
• Salt

Method

• Muddle the kaffir leaves with the strawberry puree.
• Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker or bowl.
  Shake/stir and pour into a stout glass.
  Garnish with mint leaves and the mango lolly that has been sprinkled with salt and black pepper.

Editor's Note: Instead of pureeing fresh strawberries, if the fruit is not available, puree frozen strawberries or use a strawberry crush. If using a crush, adjust the sweet and sour mix quantity, since strawberry crush has extra sugar, as does the lolly. Fresh kaffir leaves are available at certain vegetable sellers at your local market who stock 'English' vegetables or at gourmet grocery stores.

For sugar-free cocktails, use a sugar-free popsicle brand like NOTO and opt for fresh or frozen strawberries and go slow on the sweet and sour mix.

Skip the rum, and you have a splendid mocktail.

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Pehchan Kaun

Serves: 1

Ingredients

• 100 gm cranberry pulp or pre-frozen cranberry juice
• 100 gm fresh fruits, including pomegranate pieces or arils, chopped and skinned segments of oranges/mosambi and chopped, peeled pieces of apples, soaked in 200 gm red wine overnight
• 30 ml sweet and sour mix
• Soda
• Ice
• Red wine goblet or wine glass

Method

• In two wine goblets, pour equal quantities of the cranberry pulp or frozen cranberry juice slush.
  Add the fresh fruits with the wine and the sweet and sour mix. 
  Top off with soda and ice.
  Serve.

Editor's Note: For a cocktail with less sugar, go slow on the cranberry juice and sweet and sour mix.

For a non-alcoholic cocktail, soak the fruits in orange juice or grape juice.

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Ek Chutki Sindoor Ki Keemat

Serves: 1

Ingredients

• 10 gm gulkand or rose petal jam, easily available in grocery stores or online
• 10 ml sweet and sour mix
• 100 gm ice
• Any kind of interesting old fashioned glass
• Chutki or sindoor packet, for the garnish

Method

• Combine all the ingredients in a shaker.
  Shake and pour into the glass.
  Garnish the glass from the exterior with sindoor or red powder (please see the pic above).

Editor's Note: For a mocktail with less sugar, make your own rose petal jam at home using this recipe [external link] but substitute the sugar in the recipe with stevia powder.

Sonali Mullick is the head of operations and mixologist at Hitchki, the resto-bar chain, and Bayroute, a restaurant in Mumbai.