Every city has stories hiding in plain sight — stories it only reveals to those who want more from life. Sometimes, these stories live in a centuries-old craft; sometimes in an artist’s practice, a fading tradition, a more-than-human ecosystem, or a community keeping a culture alive.

Earlier this year, Dewar’s India invited 50 mixologists from the country’s best bars to come together with one purpose for the first-ever Dewar’s Discovery Challenge in India: to discover India through the cultural diversity of its cities and take inspiration from their stories to create extraordinary craft cocktails. Over the next several weeks, the mixologists found inspiration in some of the most surprising and often overlooked aspects of each city’s culture. They travelled from one end of the country to the other — encountering people, practices, and hidden histories that offered new ways of thinking about the art and craft of mixology.

In Jaipur, the journey led the cohort to Shilp Guru Gopal Saini’s Ram Gopal Blue Pottery workshop, where Jaipur blue pottery’s instantly recognisable distinctive colours and forms inspired them to think of craft as both cultural inheritance and living tradition. In Kolkata, contemporary artist Soumyadeep Roy’s creative practice became a lens through which they looked at the city’s enduring culture of experimentation and intellectual curiosity. In Goa, marine biologist and conservationist Gabriella D’Cruz introduced the mixologists to the marine ecosystems along the state’s coastline, drawing attention to fragile, often overlooked ecologies and showing that place is shaped as much by its natural environments and more-than-human inhabitants as by human culture. In Bengaluru, the group visited artist, arts facilitator, and agrihorticulturist Suresh Samuha’s urban food forest, which revealed a lesser-seen side of the city. The encounter offered a counterpoint to the city’s familiar contemporary image, revealing the older landscapes that persist alongside its rapid urban transformation as India’s cutting-edge tech hub.

In Delhi, the final phases of the Discovery Challenge introduced the finalists to two distinct cultural practices: the historic Rikhi Ram & Sons musical instrument makers and Old Delhi’s centuries-old tradition of kabootarbazi. While eight semifinalists were inspired by the ancient, communal sport of kabootarbazi or flying pigeons in Old Delhi, Ajay Rikhi Ram — the current proprietor of Rikhi Ram & Sons — inspired two finalists through the complex art of making musical instruments and preserving Delhi’s rich musical history. Together, they revealed a city whose cultural life has always been defined by eccentricities, rituals, and inherited practices that resist easy categorisation.

Through these experiences across Jaipur, Kolkata, Goa, Bengaluru, and Delhi, the mixologists discovered that there is no singular way to experience a city — that the richest stories are often the one we find in the people we meet, the traditions we encounter, and the overlooked worlds that inspire us to see a place in a different light. The Dewar’s Discovery Challenge is a celebration of that spirit of discovery and a continuation of Dewar’s 180-year-old tradition of outstanding craftsmanship, rich discoveries, and the stories they inspire.

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