New Delhi, Apr 12 (IANS): Going bar hopping across Delhi, from celebrity bartender Yangdup Lama and Meenakshi Singh's Sidecar to KiKi, Lair and Hoots', is like any other working night for multiple award-winning Japanese mixologist Shingo Gokan.
Shingo San, as the soft-spoken Japanese sensei and bar entrepreneur is lovingly known, has already spent more than 100 days outside his rented Tokyo apartment this year -- and we are not even near the half-way point of 2024.
And if he seems to love his punishing schedule, which reminded a fellow bartender of George Clooney's character in 'Up In The Air', it is because of the pleasure of discovery.
Like, tasting for himself how cilantro ('dhania') can add a new flavour profile to the traditionally chilli-infused tequila cocktail Picante. Or, what could make raw mango, which we use to make aam panna, pickles and chutneys, an ally of bartenders searching for new flavours to surprise their regulars.
In the national capital to promote the Toki Suntory Whisky, a blended whisky that combines the strengths of the Japanese conglomerate's three distilleries -- Yamazaki, Hakushu and Chita -- Shingo San said "India has the potential to become one of the most important bar markets in the world" because of its rich food culture.
Shingo San got to sample this food culture when he had dinner at the much-acclaimed Indian Accent restaurant.
"Making drinks is all about the food culture of a nation," he said, pointing out that India's "food diversity" makes it the ideal tasting lab for mixologists, who are now better known as 'bar chefs'.
To give the city's bartenders a taste of his Indian twist to his signature 'Tokyo-Okinawa-New York City' cocktails, Shingo San created a 'Tokyo, Okinawa-New Delhi' version with Suntory's Haku vodka, Colombian coffee beans roasted in Japan, ripe mangoes sourced locally, plus cinnamon, green and black cardamom, and star anise. It turned out to be an explosion of flavours you wouldn't find getting married so seamlessly in Indian bars.
By July, Shingo will have 11 bars spread across Tokyo, Okinawa, Shanghai and New York City, but he now spends more time giving back to society what he feels he owes to it by popularising Japanese heritage products internationally.
The cause he has chosen for himself is to save the age-old tradition of producing black sugar, a kind of jaggery, that is facing certain death in the eight remote islands off Okinawa where they are produced. Apparently, there are no takers for this product, so Shingo San fears -- and so does the Japanese government -- that the island's residents will just abandon their homes.
To create a market for black sugar, which, incidentally, is slightly salty because of the sea's influence, Shingo San has created a liqueur named 'Kokuto' (which is the Japanese term for Okinawan 'black sugar'). The liqueur is now served on the first and business classes of all Japan Airlines flights.
It may be a little step but it does open up plenty of possibilities for the struggling producers of black sugar. So, here's a mixologist who gets his high out of extending a helping hand to those who need it the most.