Grandmom’s Curry To Apple Pie: A Cocktail Menu Rooted In Memory

The Lab at Amaraanth, Goa is not your usual bar. It feels more like a place where ideas are constantly bubbling up, where conversations turn into cocktails, and where curiosity finds its way into a glass. It sits inside Amaraanth, a small twelve-room boutique hotel with its own restaurant and spa, but the Lab has a spirit of its own.

The space was created in collaboration with Countertop India, and anyone who has followed the Indian bar scene will know that name. Countertop, led by Pankaj Balachandran, has been quietly but firmly reshaping how India thinks about cocktails. They have put Indian bars on global lists, they have brought in fresh ways of working with local ingredients, and they have made bartending as much about storytelling as it is about skill.

By day, it operates as a research and development hub where the Countertop team experiments with ingredients, techniques, and sustainable practices. By evening, it transforms into a warm, inviting bar where those same ideas come alive in front of guests.

This isn’t Countertop’s first go at such a concept. A few years ago, they had a tiny setup in Benaulim—just a handful of seats, more like a private space for friends and collaborators than a public bar. That had its own charm, but Amaraanth allows for something larger and more open. Here, the Lab has room to stretch its legs, to welcome people who want more than just a cocktail, people who want a story to go with it.

And stories are what the menu is built on. Sustainability is one of the big themes, but it’s not treated as a marketing buzzword—it’s woven into the drinks in clever, almost playful ways. Take the Red Amaranth. The key ingredient comes from a lady who grows small batches of leafy greens in her backyard near Benaulim. She only sells about twenty bundles a month, yet instead of disappearing into anonymity, her leaves end up as the centerpiece of a cocktail. Suddenly, what might have been overlooked is celebrated.

Then there’s Miso, which shines a light on Brown Koji Boy, a Goan fermenter making miso with chickpeas, chana dal, and red rice instead of the usual soybeans. Or Caper, which uses leaves that producers in Tuticorin usually discard—here they are brined and preserved, finding a second life in a drink. Even citrus peels from Stranger & Sons gin distillation don’t go to waste. The leftover fruit pulp is turned into Key Lime Pie, a silky cocktail layered with gin, yogurt fat-washing, vanilla, Sichuan pepper, and citrus. These choices aren’t just about reducing waste; they make the drinks taste distinctive, rooted in local stories.

Nostalgia plays a big role too. One of the runaway favourites, Grandmom’s Curry, grew out of a team member’s memory of his grandmother’s curries. The drink is clarified but still full of flavour—tequila, coconut milk, tamarind, roasted leaves, and coriander all coming together in a glass that feels both familiar and new. It struck such a chord that it ended up on Asia’s 50 Best Discoveries, putting this little Goan bar on the map.

Food memories pop up elsewhere on the menu too. The Hotel Lobby cocktail was inspired by Pankaj’s years working at the Taj Mansingh in Delhi—the aroma of jasmine, lavender, kaffir lime, and marigold in the lobby stayed with him, and now it greets guests again, this time as a drink. Other playful creations lean into dish-to-drink ideas: an Apple Pie that brings the comfort of dessert, a BLT that reimagines the sandwich with bacon tequila, lettuce syrup, clarified tomato, and a foam that mimics sourdough bread. These drinks make you smile as much as they make you think.

What ties everything together is that each cocktail feels like a conversation starter. The bartenders aren’t hiding behind complicated techniques; they are happy to tell you about the lady at Benaulim Circle, the miso fermenter in Goa, or the distillery saving citrus waste. Even if you don’t know the full backstory, you sense that the drinks carry something more than just flavour.

The Lab has already found its rhythm. Some drinks—like Grandmom’s Curry—are so loved they are likely to stay on the menu for good, even as new ideas come and go. And that’s the charm of the place. It’s not static. It’s alive, shifting with the seasons, the produce, and the people who walk through its doors.

In many ways, this bar reflects where Indian mixology is heading. It’s global in its technique but local in its heart, unafraid to experiment but always anchored in something real. The team isn’t chasing flash or gimmicks; they are chasing meaning. Waste becomes wonder, memory becomes flavour, and tradition finds itself reinvented.

The Lab at Amaranth doesn’t just serve cocktails—it serves little stories in a glass. And if you are lucky, you will walk away with one of your own to remember.