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  Zorawar Kalra with Farzi Café's Apple Foamintini

The bar at Gurgaon's ultra-trendy Farzi Caf is a buzzing hangout hub. Coming across the counter are cocktails in unexpected shapes and crazy avatars that add to the heady vibe. The mixologist moves at a brisk pace, conjuring up space-age concoctions like Mojito Balls, Spaghetti Shots and Jello shots. Occasionally, he also sends an Orange Passion Sphere whizzing across the counter or even a Vodka Curry Mango Chutney Foam.

Switch to another trendy watering-hole. If you're in the mood for some amazingly innovative pub crawling, drop by Smokeys BBQ and Grill in south Delhi, where a hip cocktail called Royal awaits you to kick off the evening.

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  Pix: JAGAN NEGI

  

  (From top): Gypsy Queen from The Daily is a smoked cocktail infused with apple wood smoke; Sangria Esfuma, from The Chatter House, a smoked white wine sangria is a smash hit with patrons; The old school cocktail called Burst 52 has been reinterpreted at Smokeys; Farzi Café's B-52 Sphere involves the use of liquid chocolate and is presented in a dramatic way; Auriga serves coffee and dessert together in its molecular cocktail called Espresso Martini with Tiramisu foam; Pic: Gajanan Dudhalkar

But there's a ritual you need to follow before you knock back this funky drink. It involves a 'ravioli' casing made of crme de cassis (it's spherical with liquid inside it) that's placed on a spoon next to the cocktail glass. And yes, the ravioli needs to be gulped ahead of sipping the Royal (read a crme de cassis 'ravioli' dipped in sparkling Prosecco and topped with crme de cassis air or froth). 'There's always a story behind a cocktail crafted with molecular mixology,' says Sherine John, mixologist at Smokeys.

Farzi Caf and Smokeys are the frontrunners of the molecular mixology movement that's moving to a new high in India. Though these creative cocktail concoctions did make earlier appearances in avant-garde bar menus, it's only now that they're shaking up the Indian bar scene.

Molecular mixology, the happy union of science and cocktails, is today being embraced by adventure-loving bartenders across the country to turn out a bouquet of offbeat textures and shapes that defy conventional cocktail formats.

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  Deepak Dalvi, bartender at Auriga,conceptualised the drinks menu; Pic: Gajanan Dudhalkar

You can expect crazy consistencies such as foams, jelly, spheres, airs, and even smoke that make your cocktails truly couture. 'There's a sudden boom,' says Saurabh Tendolkar, general manager of the Pan Asian themed Auriga Restaurant and Lounge in Mumbai. He adds that molecular mixology is, of course a take-off from molecular gastronomy that's been transforming the global dining experience.

'We are offering a modern twist to all the traditional drinks by injecting them with an element of surprise. In fact we're presenting them in modern, cutting-edge ways,' says Zorawar Kalra, the youthful restaurant czar who is the brain behind Farzi Caf. Farzi Caf has seven avant-garde molecular drinks on its bar menu and retails around 40-50 of them daily.

Clearly, mixologists love their new roles as bar magicians who whip up amazing cocktail concoctions in a jiffy. Take a look at Eluther Gomes, mixologist at The Daily, a resto-bar in Bandra, Mumbai that opened its doors in March last year and has been receiving rave reviews about its bar. Gomes, who has worked previously at the Grand Hyatt, Mumbai, and has done stints in Bahrain and Dubai, is wooing cocktail connoisseurs with concoctions like Oriental Passion where kaffir lime flavoured smoke is poured into a brandy balloon glass.

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  Swadeep Popli of The Chatter House gives a thumbs up to crazy presentations for his molecular cocktails; Pic: Jagan Negi

And how exactly do you pour smoke into a glass? Well, the 33-year-old Gomes does it this way: He takes a tall decanter tap (yes, it looks almost like an open flask used in a laboratory) and drops some kaffir lime leaves into it. The leaves are then muddled, after which hot water and dry ice are added to the decanter. Once smoke starts billowing out, owing to the reaction between dry ice and hot water, Gomes pours the heavy smoke into the brandy balloon glass that's crammed with a bevy of lip-smacking ingredients including orange slices, vodka and passion fruit syrup. 'Once there's enough smoke inside the glass, I cover it with a coaster for five seconds. Soon enough you can see the smoke floating inside the glass,' says Gomes.

In fact barmen across the country are playing around with cocktail textures. At The Chatter House, one of the recent additions to the Capital's gastropub scene, mixologist Anthony Philip is whisking up a storm. Take a look at the crazy spin he has given to the Cosmopolitan (its primary ingredients are vodka, cranberry juice and Triple Sec mixed together normally). Philip, however, presents every element in a different shape and texture. The Triple Sec and vodka come in the form of caviar-like tiny, translucent orbs and the cranberry juice arrives as dainty ice cubes with the vodka poured over them.

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  Zorawar Kalra of Farzi Café loves injecting traditional drinks with an element of surprise; (above) The Spaghetti Shot is an innovative offering from Farzi Café; Pic: Jagan Negi

And yes, you can eat the alcohol caviar from a dip bowl with a tiny coffee spoon while sipping on the cranberry juice-vodka concoction. 'The effect is mind-blowing. I have had patrons ordering eight cocktails on a single evening,' says Philip. Says Swadeep Popli, founder and CEO, The Chatter House: 'We always wanted to do crazy presentations.' Popli has built on the reputation of his outlet's hit sangrias and has introduced a molecular version, named Sangria Esfuma which comes with a vanilla cloud.

Others having a ball with textured cocktails include Farzi Caf, that's smartly positioned itself as an Indian bistro that serves up molecular gastronomy-based dishes and drinks. Experimentation is definitely the name of the game here and one of its smash hit drinks is the Vodka Curry Mango Chutney Foam.

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  Eluther Gomes of The Daily loves serving molecular cocktails with heaps of showmanship; Pic: Gajanan Dudhalkar

Indian flavours are key in this concoction where vodka infused with curry leaves is blended with fresh lime juice and sugar syrup. But the crucial difference comes from the mango chutney foam — a combination of mango juice and saunth chutney (a traditional Indian chutney) — that's poured on the drink.

According to Lakhan Jethani, proprietor of Mumbai's IBAR (it claims to be India's first 3D projection-mapped bar where an illusion of multidimensional movement is created across varied surfaces), the whole experience of molecular mixology is about taking the cocktail to the next level. In tune with the futuristic ambience of the bar (it also has an iPad ordering system), Jethani, who has designed both the food and drinks menu of IBAR, is armed with a battery of equipment including the carbonator (that's the one which adds festive fizz and creates luscious foams) and a smoking gun (a machine using wood chips to give your drink an aromatic smoky flavour).

In fact mixologists say the smoking gun imparts a delicious peaty flavour, body and smoothness to cocktails. 'These help add a fresh twist to the drink,' says Jethani. For instance, he has created a concoction called the Joey Cheesecake where a shot glass (with a blend of juices like cranberry, orange and lime along with vanilla vodka that's topped with cinnamon and vanilla foam) is placed over a champagne glass filled with rosewood smoke from a smoking gun. 'Once you lift the shot glass and gulp its contents, you smell the smoke simultaneously. The effect is that of downing a liquid cheesecake shot,' says Jethani.

Then, there's Farzi Caf's head bartender Aman Dua who's working with spaghetti moulds and syringes to serve you a red wine and Cointreau cocktail that's shaped like, well, spaghetti.

And don't forget the chemicals that are integral to every startling molecular cocktail. John of Smokeys stocks up on everything from sodium alginate to dry ice to create spectacles inside a glass. 'Sodium alginate helps create ravioli that pop in your mouth,' says John.

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  Sherine John, mixologist at Smokeys, is keen to educate patrons about the ingredients used in his molecular concoctions; (Above) Lock, Stock & A Smokin Barrel, one of his creations, comes to patrons in a haze of smoke; Pic: Jagan Negi

So, how do regular patrons warm up to out-of-the-box molecular drinks? 'It's our job to introduce the adventurous bar crowd to the funky concepts behind their drinks,' says John, whose tipple talk revolves around the edible nature of ingredients used and details of how classic cocktails have been re-imagined through molecular mixology.

John has reinterpreted the old school cocktail called Burst 52 which is a layered drink (Kahlua followed by Baileys Irish cream and Cointreau) that needs to be gulped as a shot. 'Now that I serve the same drink as four raviolis of Baileys Irish cream and Kahlua placed inside a chilled glass of Cointreau, I tell guests to bite the raviolis and sip the drink at one go,' says John.

''What are molecular cocktails?' is the first question we get from our guests,' says Mithun Bhandari, lounge manager at Auriga who has conceptualised the molecular cocktails of the restaurant's bar with bartender Deepak Dalvi. He begins by deconstructing the smoking gun, foam machine and more. 'Then they are eager to know what they are going to be served,' he says.

Will molecular cocktails capture the hearts of the young bar-hopping crowd? Definitely, the flamboyant, sci-fi-style cocktails with their envelope-pushing recipes add an extra thrill to a night on the town. Says Gomes: 'It's all about showmanship. At the end of the day, what matters is how appealing your drink is and if you are serving it with attitude.'