Mixology is bartender Mukesh Rishi’s forte. He acquired the art of mixing perfect drinks over a course of four-and-a-half years at a hotel management institute, as he worked his way up through stints at the Hotel Connaught, the pub Blues and Thank God It’s Friday (TGIF).

As he worked with spirits and started innovating, he came up with a mixed cocktail for TGIF and christened it A Wine Volcano — a strong drink, as the name suggests, with ingredients like Jack Daniel’s and vodka among others. At the Island Bar in Shangri-La, where he now works as a senior bartender, Rishi likes to continue with his penchant for strong drinks such as the Black Magic. On other occasions he offers a refreshing Captain Russel’s Elixir. For those who detest juice in their drinks, he likes to make them taste Commodore Hardy’s.

Captain Russel’s Elixir

INGREDIENTS

60ml Absolut Mandarin 10gm white sugar 6-8 orange chunks 1 wedge of orange

Method

Muddle the orange chunks with sugar in a muddler (it’s a wooden tool to extract juice and aroma). Build the drink — as in add the ingredients one by one on ice. Pour the drink in a Collins glass and garnish with an orange wedge.

Black Magic

INGREDIENTS

30ml Old Monk rum 30ml Kahlua (coffee flavoured liqueur) 1 shot espresso 3 roasted coffee beans

Method

Take a cocktail shaker, fill three fourth part of it with ice cubes. Pour in the ingredients of rum, Kahlua and espresso in it and shake well. Then strain in an Old fashioned glass. Garnish with roasted coffee beans.

Commodore Hardy’s

INGREDIENTS

60ml Red Label scotch 20ml lime juice 10ml sugar syrup 1 lime wheel

Method

Build the ingredients, scotch, lime juice and sugar syrup, one by one on crushed ice. Subsequently pour into an Old fashioned glass and garnish with a lime wheel.