What

Curatated list of cocktails of Indian origin.

Why

A friend took me to the house of a cocktail connoisseur in Kolkata some time around 1995. There I tasted some fabulous cocktails with some Indian roots or variations. One of the these cocktails is now becoming common in Kolkata restaurants, and goes by the name Kaal Boishakhi ("Nor'westers", Bengali: কাল বৈশাখী, Hindi: कल बाशाखी).

At that time, Indian restaurants / bars rarely served any cocktail developed in India.

If you visit(ed the original) cocktaildb.com, they let you search by country of origin

Nothing from India!

There seems to be an Indian cocktail renaissance in the past decade. New cocktails with Indian inspiraton are being developed by bold new restaurnnteers, both in India and in places far from India. I sometimes see the term masala cocktail to describe this genre.

What makes a cocktail Desi or Indian?

based on uniquely Indian spirits, e.g. mahua or feni

based on iconic Indian variation of standard spirits, e.g. "Old Monk"

based on uniquely Indian ingredients mixers, e.g. green mango syrup or kokum

spiced up, e.g. with star anise, cardamom or amchoor, or chat masala

We were at the Epicer restaurant in Auckland, NZ. One of the cocktails on the menu was this cocktail simply labeled as "Desi Daru". I used a photo of the cocktail as the hero image of this site.
If any of the creators objects to inclusions of their intellectual property, or do not like links to their pages, please contact me, for prompt removal from this site. On the other hand, if you would like a link to your venue or cocktail creation, please let me know.