To mark World Cocktail Day, Mumbai-based culinary space ACROSS —is promoting a cocktail menu centered around the ingredients and inspirations of the Eastern Himalayas. The menu includes a collection of cocktails crafted using regional herbs, locally sourced fruits and vegetables, and classic infusions.
Established by Chef Viraf Patel and Prakriti Lama, ACROSS is recognized for its emphasis on Himalayan cuisine. Its cocktail menu is an extension of this philosophy, incorporating ingredients like walnut, hog plum, timur pepper, and Himalayan herbs to build drink profiles based on defined geographies.
The beverage options are Walnut Tree, a blend of walnut-infused whiskey, hog plum shrub, and lime. Old Pepper is another choice, with bourbon, orange, dark rum infused with timur peppercorns, as well as ginger and bitters. These cocktails seek to advance regional ingredients that are not typical in mainstream mixology.
The other options are Big Foot, consisting of bourbon, Himalayan gin, and homemade amaretto; The Paulite, featuring tequila, Aperol, and homemade amaretto; Citrus Sunrise, using Himalayan gin, malta orange, and kaffir lime; and Roll in the Field, with soju, Himalayan gin, arugula, and lime.
As per the establishment, the incorporation of foraged and off-the-beaten-path ingredients of the Himalayan belt is a move to connect with concepts of locality and sustainability, and to experiment with a new palette of flavor profiles. The majority of the preparations are based on infusions and shrubs that are in-house produced, and the focus is on seasonality and botanical variety.
World Cocktail Day, celebrated every year on May 13, marks the first published definition of a cocktail in 1806 in a New York publication. Over the past few years, bars and restaurants throughout India have increasingly utilized this day to promote regionally inspired drinks, non-mainstream ingredients, and alternative mixology techniques.
ACROSS menu is one example of a wider trend among urban establishments to incorporate regional culinary wisdom into beverage offerings, linking bar menus to ecological and cultural locales. The emphasis is on providing a unique method of cocktails without deviating from customary practices and local sourcing.