LOVE ON THE ROCKS: CHOCOLATE'S BOOZY MAKEOVER

Mixologists reinvent chocolate as a complex, bitter, and refined element in modern cocktails

- Navya Sharma

Forget the heart-shaped boxes and bonbons for your Valentine. This year, Chocolate Day has left the candy shop and bellied up to the bar. While the world is busy swooning over molten lava cakes, mixologists across Indian cities are proving that chocolate works better as a bitter, complex ingredient. Here is how chocolate grew up, ditched the sugar, and found its way into a highball glass.

The beauty of bitterness

Bartenders are leaning into cocoa's natural bitterness to elevate spirits. At SOL 55 in Bengaluru, this shows in Midnight Silk, a blend of dark rum and dark chocolate liqueur, finished with cream yet light on the palate. "The focus is on balance, allowing cocoa to enhance the spirit without overpowering it," says founder Yuvraj HS, calling it a refined nightcap with dessert-like comfort, minus excess sweetness.

The same restraint defines The Blue Bar at Taj Palace in New Delhi, where senior mixologist Aman Choudhary treats chocolate as "a tool, not a trend". In the cocktail Renaissance, cacao quietly links fruit and spice, part of the bar's language shaped by craft rather than trend.