How cocktails are named

A thoughtful cocktail name has a solid backstory.  (Photo by cottonbro studio, Pexels)
A thoughtful cocktail name has a solid backstory. (Photo by cottonbro studio, Pexels)

Summary

Mixologists and creative agencies tell compelling stories through cocktail names

The refreshing Daiquiri is bartender Navjot Singh’s favourite cocktail. He heads the Delhi speakeasy Lair, which ranked No.1 on the homegrown award platform 30 Best Bars 2024. His favourite is named after a beach in Cuba, where it originated. Typically, he says, classic cocktails like this one are named after a place or person or have a cultural connect. For instance, Sex on the Beach was coined by bartender Ted Pizio of Florida’s Confetti Bar in the 1980s, based on what he saw on Florida’s beaches during spring break. Modern cocktails reflect a bar’s philosophy, a bartender’s approach, and more recently, brand storytelling.

Lair is an elegant bar, and Singh is serious about spotlighting the essence of each cocktail. “I would never call a drink Sexy Old Fashioned. What does that even mean?" He believes a drink’s name should communicate what it is made of and where it comes from. Their rum-based cocktail Black Gold, for instance, has black pepper. “There was a time when black pepper was more valuable than gold, and India was a leading producer of this spice. Therefore, the name," he explains. This week, he sent in his entry for the global bartending competition World Class—a drink, named Four Corners, which is a take on the Espresso Martini, where he has swapped the gin for Black Label. “It is a blended scotch with spirits from the four major whisky regions of Scotland. So I called it Four Corners," he shares.

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Each bar has its own naming protocol. Chennai’s newest cocktail haunt Madras Cocktail Company has a menu that combines its playful ethos with its connect to the city. Sample these: Mallippoo Spritz, The Hoot and Lame Duck. “The Mallippoo Spritz has tequila and jasmine, a flower ubiquitous to Chennai and we needed something to embody the city," notes co-founder Santhosh Zachariah Abraham. The vodka-based Hoot served in an owl-shaped glass, and the Scotch-based Lame Duck, served in a duck-shaped glass, are all about playfulness.

Branding has entered the bar in the form of cocktail menus reimagined as books with a story behind each drink, and agencies brainstorm concepts and ideas to bring more people to the bar. Purva Mehra, creative director of the agency Please See in Mumbai, has conceptualised cocktail books for The Bombay Canteen (TBC) in the city, Muro in Bengaluru and Kotuwa in Singapore. Mehra shares the yardstick for naming cocktails: “The (brand) storytelling shapes the name." For instance, TBC’s focus is nostalgia and revival, and their cocktail books have paid homage to the city’s art deco buildings, cinema halls and key landmarks. One of the most popular drinks from their first cocktail book dedicated to art deco buildings is called Green Fields. The gin-based libation honours the iconic residential structure, Green Fields, opposite the cricket ground Oval Maidan in South Mumbai. When they launched the limited edition cocktail book, the curiosity evoked by the names inspired by these buildings prompted their residents to visit TBC just to try them.

There is much power and allure in names and the story does go deeper than what one finds on the menu.

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