O’ Be Cocktails 2023: Premium Cocktails in a Bottle
Nitesh Prakash is the founder and CEO of O’ Be Cocktails, a premium cocktail brand based in India, that offers a range of handcrafted cocktails made with all-natural ingredients and select spirits. Prakash's journey started as a regular individual who enjoyed life as it came, but he was determined to create the perfect cocktail. After numerous rounds of drinks and experiments, he concocted a line of premium cocktails that met his exacting standards. His passion for crafting the best kind of cocktail has led him to create a brand that is now popular among consumers who appreciate high-quality, all-natural ingredients in their cocktails.
DeliveryRank finds out more.
Can you share with us the story of how O' Be Cocktails came to be, and what inspired you to start your own line of premium cocktails?
Like most Indians, I am an engineer by trade. In my previous stint, when I realized that my learning curve had flattened out and that I had more potential that I wanted to tap into. So, I started meeting new people and making friends over coffee or drinks, and this is how I came across a few problems with the cocktail culture in India that I realized I could address.
The first problem was inconsistency in the taste, aroma, and presentation of classic cocktails like whiskey sour and Manhattan, which varied from place to place. The second issue was the high price of cocktails, which made it challenging for new consumers to try them. Finally, the experience was broken because the presentation and ingredients would vary from one place to another. I discussed these problems with my friends and colleagues to ensure that I was not the only one who noticed them.
To my surprise, I found that there were no consistent cocktail mixes available in India. This presented a business opportunity, and I decided to create a line of consistent cocktail blends called Art of Blending. The idea was to offer a ‘perfected’ blend of cocktails that people could enjoy at home or at social gatherings without worrying about inconsistency in taste or high prices. My blend was the perfect mix of mixology and consistency.
Overall, my goal was to ensure a consistent, well-standardized, and perfected blend of cocktails that people could enjoy in the comfort of their own homes. That is how my concept came into being, and I hope to make it accessible to every urban consumer in India and around the world.
O' Be Cocktails offers a range of flavors, from classic to unique blends. Can you discuss the process of developing new cocktail flavors, and what factors influence your decisions in creating new recipes?
Currently, our focus is on classic cocktails rather than trying to create unique blends. Our aim is to gain the trust of consumers by offering something that is familiar and easy to understand. We want them to know their cocktails first, which is why we are only working with classic cocktails at the moment.
The process is challenging and involves a lot of consumer interaction. First, we identify a set of popular or highly consumable cocktails across pubs and bars. Then, we try to recreate these cocktails in our kitchen with spirits, juices, and liqueurs to benchmark the taste profile. We have an internal tasting session where everyone writes down their understanding of the taste profile, presentation, and other factors. We then create a written document for the cocktail based on everyone's feedback.
Next, we source natural and handcrafted ingredients including spirits, flavors, and colors. These ingredients are shortlisted and filtered by a senior consultant with over 40 years of experience. We list the ingredients based on his opinion and feedback and start generating cocktails based on the shortlisted ingredients. We go through multiple alterations for each cocktail, and if we are not satisfied with the outcome, we don't launch the product.
We have heavy roadblocks and barriers to ensure that the cocktails come out right, and it takes around three to six months on average to create and launch a new cocktail in the market. We ensure that there is no compromise in the final commercial product. All the ingredients are handpicked, natural, and crafted, and they are vetted by multiple mixologists, bartenders, and consultants to ensure that the right product goes to the end consumer.
What steps does O' Be Cocktails take to ensure that the ingredients used in your cocktails are of the highest quality and sourced responsibly?
Currently, our manufacturing takes place in South Goa, India, which is a very beautiful location. We blend our cocktails there and currently supply to seven states in India. India has different licensing and regulatory procedures for each state, so we have licenses to sell in those seven states. We are also looking for ways to export our product to multiple Asian and American nations.
If anyone wants to get in touch, they can contact us through the channels available on our website. That's why we also attend exhibitions where we can sample our cocktails among the trade people. It's important because we believe that we have a global brand, and the idea is to reach all the end consumers available across the country.
Looking ahead, what are your plans for the future of O' Be Cocktails, and how do you see the company evolving in the years to come?
Our company has two main areas of focus. First, we want to continuously innovate our range of cocktails. To do this, we have a dedicated team working on developing new and exciting cocktail recipes, starting with classic cocktails, and eventually moving on to creating our own signature cocktails. We also plan to innovate our packaging and overall customer experience to ensure that we deliver the best possible experience to our customers.
The second area of focus is to expand our reach and take our products to consumers all around the world. Our goal is to become a global brand, and we plan to achieve this by reaching out to multiple markets and finding ways to supply our cocktails to consumers in every country. We have set an ambitious target of reaching 100 countries in the next five years, and we are working hard towards achieving this goal.
We have a great team in place that is dedicated to making this happen. Our team is working tirelessly to ensure that we continuously move forward and take the right steps towards achieving our goal of becoming a global brand. We are excited about the future and confident that we will be able to achieve our objectives.
If you would like to find out more about O’ Be Cocktails, visit https://obecocktails.com/ or follow on https://www.instagram.com/obecocktails/
