We have found for you spirited flavours of London in Mumbai! The British Cocktail Club menu is a palate-stirring addition to the new outlet of British Brewing Company in Lower Parel. The inspiration? Lots of gin and popular cocktails of Britain with unexpected twists.
The theatrics of a traditional British pub — often compared to a great living room where visitors can drink their favourite meads, ales, and cocktails over nibbles and easy-going conversations — unravels as soon as you step in. Rustic but cosy, lively yet understated, a pub (originally called a public house) is a cultural asset of sorts in the UK. Miles away from Britain’s soil, in the Indian city of Mumbai, the new outpost of British Brewing Company in Todi Mills, Lower Parel raises the curtain to a similar, unassuming semblance of a local British pub.
The bulging, wooden barrels stacked right opposite the entrance offer the first hint. Then, a modern-industrial canvas of bare bricks, exposed pipes, graphic wall art, dim lighting, and a foosball table in one corner along with a menu stocked with beers and craft brews play their part in speaking the jargon of a proper British pub.
But is that all the flagship outlet of BBC in South Mumbai offers? Turns out, there’s a bigger and more British side to it that reimagines a casual London pub outing in India, called the British Cocktail Club.
Sign us up to the British Cocktail Club
The British Cocktail Club, as it indicates, is a world of uniquely created cocktails with its roots in the UK’s drinking culture and is a brand-new addition to the menu of BBC. As Naveen Kotyankar, Beverage Head at British Brewing Company says, “At BBC, we are quite strong with our beers, so I thought why not put a little limelight on the cocktails as well, as they are as popular as our beers at BBC. So from our brand name, we took the word ‘British’ as a reference while devising the new cocktails in the British Cocktail Club.”
From a number of popular cocktails from all around the UK, the next step for Kotyankar, who has also worked as a bartender earlier, was to filter out a selection of cocktails based on the ingredients available in Mumbai. To make it different yet palate-friendly, he added a few of twists to the cocktails and devised his own recipes as well, which finally shaped the special menu.
With conceiving the British Cocktail Club as a special segment on the menu at the British Brewing Company, the idea was, “Everyone does not drink beer all the time. There are times when you don’t want to have a beer or a neat spirit, but still want to enjoy the experience of a tipple, that’s where cocktails bridge that gap.”
Currently, a total of 12 cocktails make up the British Cocktail Club, each with a memorable, characteristic flair. For instance, The Bramble, which is an easy, sophisticated-sounding cocktail that could possibly remind you of two things. First, its origin from a bar in London in the 1980s by the popular bartender of his time, Dick Bradsell, whose original Bramble was inspired from his childhood days of collecting blackberries. Or, the slushy and tongue-freezing kala khatta used as a flavour for shaved ice popsicles on the streets of Mumbai. For me, it was the latter without thinking too hard about it.
Comprising gin, lime, blackcurrant nectar, sugar syrup, sliced malta, and a bottom layer of cracked ice, The Bramble with its gradient icy and purple-hues tells off flavours of The Greater Than gin that the bartender used while making my cocktail, with seeping hints of lime and blackcurrant in every sip.
What’s more British than gin?
“For every cocktail that’s a part of the British Cocktail Club and the regular menu, the selection is done based on the simplicity of the ingredients. Stepping away from any molecular concoctions, the recipe is devised such that even if you are using two or three different spirits and ingredients in one cocktail, the individuality of every element stands out in the cocktail,” says Kotyankar.
Taking references from Britain, a bundle of exciting renditions find place in the menu, such as Bramley Apple Smash, Ginger N James, Espresso Martini, and of course, London Sour (a spin on the classic whiskey sour) and London Mule (another enticing take on the famous Moscow Mule that uses a kick of vodka) created with gin, green apple nectar, ginger ale, and lime.
Ditching the likes of whiskies, rum, vodka, tequila, most of the concoctions in British Cocktail Club make gin their hero. “Britain is a very gin-focussed nation, so the base spirit for most of the cocktails is gin and the flavours are a cross-section of little twists here and there,” explains Kotyankar.
British Brewing Company also plans to host Martini Mondays in a special collaboration with Bombay Sapphire Gin, stirring up five martinis paired with a few appetisers from the menu. Although this is just a one-off event, “By the end of the month, whichever cocktail does the best will automatically become a part of the British Cocktail Club.”
While sundry elements together make the British Cocktail Club a London-bound getaway for spirit connoisseurs and even for those just beginning to dip their toes in the pool of cocktails, what stands out is how creative yet undecorated the cocktail names are, making it easier to remember the next time you order it again on your next visit. Kotyankar sums up with, “At British Brewing Company, the cocktail is exactly what it is called. It is unpretentious, easy, and encourages conversations. Simplicity, that’s what defines most of our cocktails.”
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