To celebrate Indian Independence Day, 15 August, we’d like to share some cocktail recipes inspired by the connections between India and Ireland, just like Maharani Gin.
Made in Ireland and spiced in Kerala, India. Maharani Gin reflects the unexpected connections and cultural vibrancy of modern Ireland. For St Patrick’s Day 2021 we commissioned a Maharani Gin cocktail that reflects the coming together of cultures, a modern Ireland that embraces its roots and takes inspiration from around the world.
The responses to our Maharani Mixology Competition demonstrated incredible skill, insight and creativity and in a series of blog posts, we’d love to share the cocktail recipes with you! Check out an earlier blog post full of the perfect cocktails mixes for a summer’s day.
Through the entries, we learned that Ireland and India have a long history together. Eamonn De Valera has a street named after him in Delhi, and in St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin, there is a statue of the famous Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore. Both Indian and Irish cultures are passionate about and consume vast quantities of tea. Inspired by Indian and Irish ingredients, we hope you try some of these cocktails recipes at home.
Cocktail Recipes
“Keral-lish” Darren Geraghty (@dcocktailguy)
“It’s all about the DNA. Ingredients. One’s journey. All coming together to tell a story…. My own journey of flavor, ingredients and cocktails, started from the classic cocktails that inspired my own creativity and ginger to learn. Through my journey from working in a Dhaba that embraced food from the length and breadth of India, Keralite staples and ingredients that speak to the DNA of Indian food and specifically Kerala.”
Darren Geraghty
Darren named his cocktail Kerl-lish embracing Kerala where our spices are sourced and home of our co-founder Bhagya and of course the deliciousness of this cocktail. “Keral-lish” is a cocktail that reflects the coming together of cultures, a modern Ireland that embraces its roots and takes inspiration from around the world. A drink that celebrates cross-pollinated ingredients in honour of Keralite and Irish culture!
Ingredients:
50ml Maharani Irish gin.
10ml Campari infused with pink grapefruit*.
30ml Tomato and burnt cinnamon syrup*.
15ml Caramelised lemon juice*.
20ml Aquafaba.
Method:
Add all ingredients to shaker and dry shake. Add ice and shake, fine strain into chilled glass. Serve in a chilled bacon-salt painted glass. Garnish with a single shamrock clove (or equivalent mint clove).
For the infused Campari, take one whole pink grapefruit and remove zest and with minimum amount of pith add this with 500ml of Campari into a sealed jar. Allow to infuse for 24hrs. Strain and rebottle.
For the tomato and burnt cinnamon syrup, take two large tomatoes and blend till smooth, fine strain. Take 3 cinnamon quills and scorch with a blowtorch, add these to a pot, toast for 30 secs before adding 100ml of boiling water, allow to boil for 3 mins before adding 2 cups sugar, stirring continuously. Simmer on a lower heat for an additional 5 mins. Remove liquid and fine strain, allow to cool, and add 100ml blended tomato liquid. Stir and fine strain. Refrigerate to store.
For the caramelised lemon juice, halve two lemons, placing the 4 halves on a heat-proof surface, use a blow torch to heat the exposed surfaces till charred. Juice the lemons and strain.
“Tagores Tipple” by Rui (@__themixologist__)
“Did you know? There is a street in Delhi, India named after Eamon De Valera? Well in return, there is also a statue of a famous Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore on our doorstep in St. Stephens Green, Dublin. Tagore is to Bengali Literature what Eamon De Valera was to Irish politics. Someone that WB Yeats truly admired.”
Rui
Rui’s cocktail involved a twist on the fusion of two classic cocktails to create ‘Tagores Tipple’. Rui used a fusion of Irish and Indian ingredients in particular with the bitters concept using notes of vanilla beans, cardamom, citrus peel, and turmeric root that bring a new experience to your palate as soon as you start to drink it!
Ingredients:
50ml Maharani Gin.
25ml Mancino Vermouth Rosso Amaranto.
15ml Lustau East India Solera.
6 Drops of signature bitters.
3 Drops Wonderfoam.
Orange Glaze Air foam.
Method:
First chill the glass, while it chills add all the ingredients to a shaker. Dry shake, then half fill the shaker with ice. We don’t want to overfill with ice as it will prevent you from creating the beautiful foam that finishes the cocktail. Double strain into your pre-chilled glass. To finish put the orange foam together on top of the drink add the bitters, a little spray of orange and enjoy!
“Baggee Chai” by James Campbell (@kingofsoup)
“The inspiration behind my entry is quite simple. I researched what Ireland and India had in common, the answer was tea.”
James Campbell
The name Bagee Chai translates as rebel tea. Bagee is a phonetic English pronunciation of rebel. India is the second-biggest producer of tea in the world with an annual production hovering around 1,279 million kg. Ireland is well known for our tea consumption, we are the second-largest tea consumer in the world. Residents here need a cup of hot, steaming tea just to get through the grey winters. The consumption rate here is 4.83 lb or 2.19 kg and the drink of choice is black tea.
Tea has become almost a right of passage in every home, either your mother, father, brother, sister, cousin, uncle, cat and dog are drinking it! And then just over 8,000km away in India they have Chai. Chai is tea, black tea, but tea steeped in milk, flavored with spices such as cinnamon, cardamom, and star anise, and sweetened with sugar. Chai is a way of life in India. Almost everywhere you go, in trains, on streets, in sari shops, you will see people drinking this sweet, spicy, milk beverage.
James chose the chai because he wanted to create a punch-style drink, the grapefruit because it’s related to pomelo, and a touch of honey for sweetness.
Ingredients:
60ml Maharani gin.
120ml milk.
240ml water.
40ml Grapefruit juice.
1x tablespoon of chai mix.
1x tablespoon Olly’s farm honey.
Chai mix:
Green tea.
Cardamom.
Ginger.
Cloves.
Black pepper.
Cinnamon.
Mint.
Method:
Add milk, water, chai mix & honey to a non-stick pot and simmer for 3 minutes. Turn up the heat and bring to a boil, add in Maharani Gin and grapefruit juice stir until the milk curdles and strain through filter paper three times. Leave to cool, bottle it up and keep refrigerated.
“The Indian Caterpillar” by James Agar (@therarebartender)
“Using the essential Indian flavour cardamom and combining it with herbs that would be found in classic Irish home cooking, sage and rosemary.”
James Agar
James took his starting point as a cocktail he created for the launch of Rare 1784 at the Blue Haven Hotel Kinsale. The original cocktail, called ‘Indian Butterfly’ was inspired by his colleague Chef Meeran’s Indian heritage and his time in Ireland. Today’s cocktail is a riff called, “The Indian Caterpillar”.
James used ingredients that are not only native to India, but also native to Meeran’s home region in India, as well as some classic Irish touches. For example, the ginger is both native to Meeran’s home region and a classic Irish staple, and everyone in Ireland has been given the traditional whiskey, ginger, and honey to help them get better. Then, using the essential Indian flavour cardamom, combine it with herbs used in traditional Irish cooking, such as sage and rosemary.
Ingredients:
50ml Maharani Gin.
25ml Lemon Juice.
30ml Sweet Vermouth (James used carpano antica formula).
20ml Ginger & Cardamom Simple Syrup.
1 sprig rosemary.
4 sage leaves.
Sugar syrup:
30g fresh ginger.
6 cardamom seeds.
125g water.
125g caster sugar.
Method:
To make sugar syrup put everything in a pan, simmer for 5 minutes, leave to infuse for 10 minutes. Strain. Add sugar syrup, rosemary and sage to shaker tin and muddle. Add Maharani Gin, lemon juice and Vermouth to the tin. Add ice and shake. Single strain into glass over ice and garnish with 2 sage leaves and a rosemary sprig.
We would like to thank everyone that entered our Maharani Mixology Competition. The standards of cocktails were superb, and this competition wouldn’t be possible without your entries. We hope that you enjoyed the experience of using Maharani Gin.