Recipes: Must-Try Desi Summer Drinks (2024)

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Khus ka sherbet
Ingredients: 45 ml London dry gin, 15 ml khus syrup, 15 ml lime juice, 15 ml sprite, salt to pinch, ice to fill glass and lime slices or mint leaves to garnish
Method: Add ice to glass. Build the drink by adding dry gin, khus syrup and lime juice. Add a pinch of salt and then top it up with sprite. Garnish with lemon wedges or mint leaves. Serve chilled.

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Vodka Shikanji
Ingredients: 60 ml vodka, 30 ml lime juice, 45 ml sugar syrup,
8-10 mint leaves, 1 tbsp shikanji salt, ice to equal volume of liquid ingredients
Method: Add vodka, lime juice, sugar syrup and shikanji salt in a blender with ice and blend. Pour into a tall glass and top up to taste with water. Serve chilled.

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Chatka Mary
Ingredients: 45 ml vodka, 150 ml guava juice, 15 ml lime juice, 1 lime wedge,
2 tsps Tabasco sauce, ¼ tsp Woscestershire sauce and green chilli to garnish
Method: Rim the glass with salt and red chilli powder. Fill the glass ¾ with ice. Add the guava juice, lime juice, Tabasco sauce and Woscestershire sauce into it. Squeeze the lime into it. Pour in the vodka and stir. Slide in a green chilli to garnish. Serve chilled.

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Adrak ka Tadka
Ingredients: 45 ml vodka, 15 ml Cointreau, 30 ml ginger syrup, 30 ml cranberry juice,
30 ml sweet & sour mix and crushed ice
Method: Combine vodka, Cointreau, ginger syrup, cranberry juice and sweet and sour mix in a blender and blend well. Add the crushed ice in the glass. Pour the mixture and serve chilled.

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Madhur Jugalbandi
Ingredients: 4 green apples, 100 ml apple juice, 5 gms brown sugar,
2 gms cinnamon powder, 1 scoop lychee ice cream, 1 scoop custard ice cream, 50 gms chocolate sponge crumbs and 30 ml dark rum
Method: Scoop out custard apple ice cream and roll it in chocolate sponge crumbs. Add rum to it and freeze it. De-skin and deseed the apples and mash it roughly. Add cinnamon powder to it. In a separate glass, pour apple juice and add the mashed apples and mix them. Add one scoop of lychee ice cream. Top with mashed apples and top it up again with crumbed ice cream. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Serve chilled.

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Pudina Masala
Ingredients: 45 ml white rum or vodka, 10-12 mint leaves, 6 lemon wedges, 1 tsp sugar, 1 pinch chaat masala, ½ tsp roasted jeera, 1 pinch rock salt, 1 pinch chilli powder and soda or sprite to top up
Method: Muddle the mint leaves and lemon wedges in a Collins glass. Add rum/vodka, sugar, chaat masala, roasted jeera, rock salt and chilli powder along with crushed ice. Top it up with soda/sprite and stir. Serve chilled.

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Madeira Special Coffee
Ingredients: 30 ml Bailey's Irish Cream, 30 ml Tia Maria, 60 ml expresso coffee, 10 ml whipped cream and 10 gms brown sugar
Method: In a warm Irish coffee glass, pour coffee and brown sugar. Stir well and add the Bailey’s Irish Cream and Tia Maria. Float with cream. Garnish with coffee beans.

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Kala Khatta Daiquiri
Ingredients: 45 ml white rum, 30 ml Manama blackcurrant crush, 15 ml kala khatta syrup, 15 ml lime juice, crushed ice, black salt to pinch and 4-5 mint leaves to garnish
Method: Rim the glass with black salt. Fill the shaker or blender with two scoops of crushed ice and pour all the ingredients into it. Blend it till it comes slushy. Pour into the rimmed glass and garnish with the mint leaves.

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Jamuntini
Ingredients: 60 ml London dry gin, 5-6 pieces of jamun, 10 ml lime juice, 15 ml sugar syrup, salt to rim and ice to fill shaker
Method: Muddle the jamuns in a co*cktail shaker. Fill with ice, add the gin, lime juice and sugar syrup. Shake and double strain into a chilled salt rimmed co*cktail glass. Serve chilled.

How about an Indian twist to your drinks this summer? Liven up your weekend parties with some of these cool desi drinks...

Courtesy: Executive chef, Prashant Tikadia, Hotel Kohinoor Continental
Jaykrishnan Pillai - Assistant F&B Manager, The Westin Pune Koregaon Park
Shatbhi Basu, Beverage Consultant & Director - STIR Academy of Bartending
Ritesh Sinha, Assistant Manager F&B, Le Meridian Jaipur