Three make a party: Moët Hennessy x Svami mixers

Moët Hennessy and Svami collaborate on a trio of mixers, just in time to help the at-home bartender this festive season

Failure can be as much a cause for cheer as success, but not when it comes to your cocktail. So when Sophia Sinha, marketing head for Moët Hennessy (MH) India, concocted a “terrible cocktail” by her own reckoning (pineapple juice, chillies and Belvedere vodka; “basically, I killed Belvedere”) out of pantry staples during the lockdown last year, it was something not to be laughed away.

“I am a good cook but I can’t make cocktails,” she chuckles. She was not alone either. Social media then was full of posts about “pantry mixologists”, people concocting drinks with whatever ingredients they had at home, aspiring to imaginative DIYness, but failing to pour palatable or consistent drinks into their coupes.

It was this failure that led Sinha to pick up the phone to Shehan Minocher, brand ambassador of MH in India, and the company’s resident bar expert, to discuss the idea of creating mixers that could go with some of the luxe alcohol the French major sells. The result has now been unveiled. MH has collaborated with home-grown brand Svami, a leader in the non-alcoholic drinks category, to produce three fairly sophisticated mixers: a pomelo ‘spritz’, tangerine ‘highball’, and cinnamon and pepper-accented ginger ale — to go with the conglomerate’s top-of-the-line brands Belvedere (vodka), Glenmorangie (single malt) and Hennessy VS (cognac) respectively. Home consumers who buy these spirits get packs of mixers matched with the spirit.