Ever since Taftoon set out on its first journey along the Grand Trunk Road in 2017, we have been passengers on the caravan. This time, owner Pankaj Gupta has tweaked the route to focus on their bar programme with Adventures on the Grand Trunk Road: Volume 1 — an 11-cocktail journey inspired by Afghanistan, the Khyber Pass, Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi, Panipat, Lucknow, Varanasi, Patna, West Bengal and Chittagong.

“We were building a bar front, and ended up going all in with an immersive cocktail book,” says Gupta. As we flip through the book design, regional ingredients and flavours and translate into stories and drinks. “Indians are fans of straight drinks, so we took one ingredient from each region and built a cocktail around it, focusing on stirring and shaking well.” Think Dal Baati from Rajasthan, or the pickles of Punjab, reimagined in cocktail form.