How cocktails are named
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. 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. 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.
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