India, May 4 -- As more people travel to Northeast India and return curious about its ingredients and flavours, innovative bartenders across the country are bringing those elements into their menus. Today, across some of India's top bars, you'll find bamboo, black rice, fermented liqueurs and chilli infusions sourced from the hills and rolling landscapes of the Seven Sisters, shaping a new wave of cocktails. At Loya, Taj Palace, New Delhi, head bartender Gaithoilungpu Albert Gangmei is turning memory into a drink. For him, mixology is a way of bringing his hometown to the high-gloss marble of the Taj. He shares, "Black rice, or 'forbidden rice', has a mild, earthy, and distinctly nutty flavour. I started this cocktail by remembering my childhood, watching my Grandma boil black rice in the winter and letting me drink that warm, starchy water. It was the best flavour of my life." Today, he scales that nostalgia into a glass. He boils the black rice for 10 minutes, straining the liquid to create a nectar mixed with an equal portion of sugar. The remaining rice liquid is transformed into a delicate foam. The final build includes black rice liquid, sugar syrup, Campari, lime juice and bourbon whiskey. In Basant Lok, hidden so well that you might miss it even on a Saturday, lies Margaret's Eye. Run entirely by women and serving only white spirits, the bar has reinvented the city's favourite, the Picante, with an Assamese twist. Their House Picante blends Maya Pistola agave spirit with fermented bamboo shoot cordial. The result isn't just heat; it's a woody, savoury dimension that makes the standard tequila drink feel suddenly one-dimensional. In Greater Kailash II, Barbet & Pals has just launched its Bird's Eye View menu, a rain-soaked tribute to Meghalaya. "When we travelled to Meghalaya, we came back inspired by their local food culture. The ingredients are not new, what's new is how we, as bartenders, are starting to look at them differently and bring them into cocktails," says Jeet Rana, co-founder, Barbet & Pals., adding, "Guests today are more open, curious, and willing to try something unfamiliar. So we travel, learn, bring back stories, and then translate them into drinks that are both rooted and relevant."...