Cocktails to enjoy the monsoons at home

It’s a perfect time to chill at home with your favourite drinks as the rain drizzles in the background as the monsoon season descends upon us in all its majesty. A simple DIY cocktail in your hand is the ideal way to enjoy a quiet rainy day. Let the flavour of the conversation permeate as you sip on these delectable whisky and gin cocktails as everyone chatters away.

Here are some of the best drinks for the monsoon season:

Rich & Restless

INGREDIENTS

60 ml Grant’s Distinction

Pineapple — Parsley oleo — 30 ml

Lemon Juice — 15 ml

Paprika salt — to rim

METHOD

Shake all ingredients over ice, strain in a coupe

Pineapple, parsley oleo: 2 Big chopped pineapples, 500gm sugar, 50-gram parsley

Keep overnight in a covered jar.

Strain

Paprika salt — 1:1 of sweet paprika and salt

Grant’s Distinction can unquestionably create an upscale ambiance thanks to its raisin cake richness that makes it very mixable. Grant’s Distinction, which maintains the family’s “House style,” has a powerful, malty character with delicate fresh fruit flavours that add a special blend of sweet and spicy overtones. In order to cater to a younger generation of Scotch Whiskey drinkers, it is made from the finest malt and grain whiskies, which were personally chosen by master blender Brian Kingsman. Grant’s Distinction is only sold in India and costs Rs 2,500 for 750 ml in Mumbai and Rs 1,200 for 750 ml in Gurugram.

Tropical Green Apple

INGREDIENTS

60 ml Grant’s Triple Wood

22.5 ml Green Apple Syrup

15 ml Fresh Lemon Juice

2 sprigs of thyme

Soda to top

METHOD

Pour in a shaker, muddle thyme a little and shake over ice.

Strain into a high ball glass with ice and top up with soda.

Garnish with a thyme twig and dehydrated apple

In order to provide a smoother, richer, mellower flavour, Grant’s Triple Wood is aged in three different types of wood: virgin oak barrel, which adds a peppery strength; american oak, which adds a subtle vanilla smoothness; and the bourbon refill, which adds a brown sugar sweetness. It boasts rich pear and summer fruit aromas, a lengthy, sweet finish, and a little whiff of smoke. It is offered in a few locations around India and costs Rs 1,950 for 750 ml in Mumbai.

Mighty Mizaru (A version of clarified New York Sour)

INGREDIENTS

60ml Monkey Shoulder

Orange Marmalade — 2 bars spoons

20ml Lime juice

Clarified with 30 ml Milk

Shiraz wine float

METHOD

Combine all the ingredients except wine, then put the mixture of monkey, jam and lime into the milk so that it curdles.

Clarify the mixture using a coffee filter and then batch the mixture.

Pour the mixture in an old-fashioned glass over a block of ice.

Pour red wine over the top to float.

Monkey Shoulder is a versatile, fun-loving, and free-spirited scotch whiskey. It is the ideal 100 per cent malt whiskey for combining due to its richness and vitality, fruity smells, and subtle vanilla undertones. It can be sipped neat, on the rocks, or in various cocktail concoctions. In Mumbai, Monkey Shoulder costs Rs 6,050 for 700 ml and is sold all over the nation.

Hendrick’s Martini

Since its invention sometime in the 19th century, the Martini has slinked across our collective imagination in literature, cinema and song. Here we meet the flavours of gin in a primal pure form. This classic of classic cocktails, this melodious master, is further heightened when it entertains Hendrick’s Gin herself.

INGREDIENTS

50ml Hendrick’s Gin

7ml Dry Vermouth

Cucumber slice

METHOD

Stir vermouth and Hendrick’s Gin over ice cubes in a mixing glass

Strain into a martini glass

Garnish with a cucumber slice

Hendrick’s Gin is a delightful, ultra-premium gin that is created with a variety of unique twists. Hendrick’s mixes a unique blend of eleven botanicals with the signature infusions of cucumber and rose petals to give a flavour that is both strange and pleasantly distinctive. The result is a beautifully refreshing gin with a delightfully distinctive scent. Hendrick’s is the only gin that uses a marriage of spirits from both a Carter head and Bennett Copper Pot Still, a combination that results in a divinely smooth gin that has both the necessary character and balance of subtle flavours. Hendrick’s is handcrafted in Scotland in tiny batches by William Grant & Sons. In Mumbai, Hendrick’s Gin costs Rs 5,000, while in Delhi, it costs Rs 3,995. (IANS)