Ingredients popular in the north eastern state of India add an interesting twist to your usual tipple.

Ingredients 

 

• 15 ml white spirits (vodka, triple sec, gin, tequila, white rum)

 

• Assam tea

 

• Dash of lemon

 

• Sugar syrup

 

Method 

Put all the white spirits in a cocktail shaker with lime juice and sugar syrup. Give it a brisk shake. Strain the mix into a Tom Collins glass. Add ice and top it up with some Assam tea decoction.

RHCP (Red Hot Caipiroshka Pepper)

Ingredients

 

• 60 ml pepper vodka

 

• 1 Bhut Jolokia chilli

 

• Lemon chunks

 

• A dash of lemon juice

 

• Sugar syrup (infused with Bhut Jolokia chilli)

 

• Soda

 

Method

Infuse the pepper flavoured vodka with a bhut jolokia chilli by steeping the de-seeded chilli in vodka for 2-4 hours. Put 8 lemon chunks, 15 ml bhut jolokia-infused sugar syrup and 15 ml lemon juice in a hurricane glass. Muddle them, then add vodka and crushed ice. Garnish with the same chilli, sliced vertically. Top with soda.

Assamese Mojito

Ingredients

 

• 60 ml white rum

 

• Mint leaves

 

• Kaji nemu (Assamese lemon) chunks

 

• Lemon juice

 

• Sugar syrup

 

• Soda

 

Method

Add 8-10 chunks of Assamese lemon in a kilner glass. Add sugar syrup, 8-10 mint leaves, and a dash of lemon juice and muddle them. Add 60 ml white rum, crushed ice and top with soda.

Paan Julep

Ingredients

 

• 60 ml whisky

 

• Lemon chunks

 

• Betel leaves

 

• Lemon juice

 

• Brown sugar syrup

 

Method

Put 8 lemon chunks, one betel leaf (cut in 4 pieces), lemon juice and brown sugar syrup in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Give it a firm shake and pour in an old fashioned glassfilled with crushed ice.

Recipes courtesy Pabitra Das Biswas, mixologist at the Vivanta by Taj Hotel, Guwahati