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You walk into a bartending competition expecting sharp elbows and sharper pours. What you don’t expect is warmth. At the Kolkata leg of a global platform by Monin Cup , what stayed with us wasn’t just the cocktails, it was the camaraderie. This was the starting point of a nationwide search, with finalists headed to Bengaluru. But on ground, it didn’t feel like a ladder. It felt like a circle. As jury member Kobid Sinha put it, the room was “full of energy, full of excitement” , the kind that passes from one bartender to another. The format moved from control to chaos: signature recipes first, where “we are checking on their originality and creativity,” followed by a surprise box round testing “improvisation skills… and how they marry flavours together.” Less perfection, more instinct , and it showed.


When cocktails start tasting like kitchens

If there’s one shift you can’t miss, it’s this: the bar is borrowing from the kitchen. “Mixology is not stuck into juices right now. It is into creativity,” said Indranil Chatterjee, President, Beverage Community Eastern India and IBG. That creativity got personal. Pabitra Pradhan, bartender at Cosy Box Kolkata, built a gin cocktail with curry leaves , “We see many uses of curry leaves at home… why not try this?” Unexpected, nostalgic, and it worked. Elsewhere, ginger, basil, even roasted garlic showed up. “Someone had the guts to do that… something crazy,” jury member Kobid Sinha said , and that word, guts, stuck. Winner Sayan Mandal went global: a house-made horchata with cold brew, balancing “tradition” and “modern culture.”




More than a contest

What stood out had little to do with winning. For an individual craft, this felt collaborative, mentorship in motion, ideas moving across the room. As jury member Rituparna Banerjee put it, “it just encourages us that the city is full of talents… all we need to do is give them a platform.” That’s exactly what this felt like , not a finish line, but a starting point. You saw it in choices , drawing from memory like Pabitra Pradhan, or taking risks bold enough to be imperfect. The point wasn’t perfection. It was progression. The energy wasn’t just about showcasing , it was about sharing. Conversations spilled beyond the bar, carrying ideas, techniques, encouragement. We walked in expecting competition. We walked out seeing community. Because here, no one really lost, just a room full of people raising the bar for each other.