What were two of India’s most celebrated bartenders doing at Kolkata’s Lake Market on a humid July afternoon? One was foraging through bunches of herbs, feeling the leaves between his fingers before lifting them to his nose. The other had wandered off towards a mountain of jackfruit, hefting one into his palms, inspecting its weight, tapping its knobbled green skin.
Neither Manoj Kumar nor Krishna Kumar of Bengaluru’s award-winning cocktail bar Soka had come to Lake Market to shop for dinner. They were there to learn the language of Kolkata’s pantry before translating it into drinks. Over the next few hours, fruit sellers, spice merchants and vegetable vendors from the market would become part of the creative process behind Nutcase Etc.’s new guest shift collaboration, The Joker Shift.
They wandered next into the dry goods section, where pyramids of rice leaned against sacks of lentils, and blocks of jaggery sat beside loose crystals of unrefined sugar. Patali gur or solid date palm jaggery invited comparisons with jaggery from Karnataka. Different names surfaced for ingredients that tasted strikingly familiar. “Both of them felt the produce here was extraordinary, “ says Rahul Banerjee, head bartender and co-founder, Nutcase.
“There were these lovely moments; when we realised the same ingredient exists across states. Only the names change,” Rahul says. It became one of the collaboration’s greatest revelations. Strip away language and geography, and Indian pantries often speak the same dialect.
This journey had actually begun the previous evening with a plain cardboard box. Nutcase Etc., the intimate Kolkata cocktail parlour known for its ingredient driven drinks, chose an unconventional way to begin its collaboration with Bengaluru’s Soka. It handed visiting bartenders Manoj and Krishna a mystery box.
Inside were eight ingredients that could have doubled as a culinary map of Bengal: smoked Bandel cheese, slabs of dark pataligur or date palm jaggery, jars of Sundarban honey, fragrant Badshah Bhog rice, panch phoron (cumin, brown mustard, fenugreek, nigella and fennel), jamun, hog plum and a handful of glossy pink karamcha orBengal currants.
“When they landed in Kolkata, we asked them what they thought would be inside. They guessed the usual suspects like gondhoraj and kasundi. But we wanted to throw them a googly,” says Priyadarshini Chitrangada, manager, brand and community at Nutcase Etc.
Founded by chef Sombir Choudhary and Avinash Kapoli, Soka has been ranked number two on 30 Best Bars India 2025 and number 28 on Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2025.
Nutcase Etc x Soka
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Special Arrangement
Nutcase Etc, on the other hand, within a year of its opening was recognised as number 15 on 30 Best Bars India 2026 and featured among Condé Nast Traveller India’s Hottest New Openings of 2025.
Neither Manoj nor Krishna from Bengaluru’s Soka had tasted karamcha before. They rolled it between their fingers first, studying its taut skin before biting into it. The sharp burst of acidity was followed by a slow, lingering sweetness. Here was a wild Bengal berry making two bartenders imagine entirely new possibilities.
That moment set the tone for The Joker Shift, Nutcase Etc’s new guest shift format which is intended to happen twice annually. Instead of inviting celebrated bartenders to arrive with finished recipes packed neatly into flight cases, Nutcase wanted them to arrive empty handed, ready to be surprised. The first edition of this format was held on July 2 at Nutcase Etc located in South Kolkata’s Manohar Pukur Road.
Soka’s Manoj Kumar and Krishna Kumar at Nutcase Etc
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Special Arrangement
“Usually, bars collaborate by making the drinks they’re already known for. We wanted MK and KK to discover Kolkata through their own eyes, through the eyes of Bengaluru,” says Rituparna Banerjee, chef and founder of Nutcase.
Manoj and Krishna at Kolkata’s Lake Market
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Special Arrangement
Back at the bar, some of what they had seen in the market began finding its way into the menu. The jackfruit that had caught KK’s eye was paired with Dewar’s 12-Year Scotch and smoked Bandel cheese in Joker’s #. The unfamiliar karamcha, became the defining ingredient in Joker’s Coke, mixed with Patrón Reposado tequila.
The Joker’s # comprised Dewar’s 12 year old scotch, jackfruit and bandel cheese.
| Photo Credit:
Shreya Banerjee
Elsewhere, Love Marriage brought together Dewar’s 15-Year Scotch, sweet vermouth, Timur berry, fresh nutmeg juice and aromatic bitters, while Death Wish leaned towards richer flavours with Grey Goose vodka, peanut, espresso, coffee liqueur and monk perfume. The menu didn’t try to replicate either Kolkata or Bengaluru. It reflected two days of tasting, questioning and discovering where the two cities overlapped.
Love Marriage was a sweet alchemy of Dewar’s 15-year- old Scotch, sweet vermouth, Timur berry, fresh nutmeg juice and aromatic bitters
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
The cocktails were never the starting point. They were the outcome of a mystery box, a market walk, dozens of conversations and 36 hours of looking closely at a city through its ingredients.
Published – July 07, 2026 05:52 pm IST
