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Assortment of flavoured lassis by Oye Kake

From Old Monk gulab jamun to oreo pakoda, 2021 threw up some of the wackiest food experiments. While some like Maggi milkshake left netizens cringing, Indian-American food blogger Shihan Chowdhury’s (@chilipeppercooks) Toblerone lassi with Thai chilli-honey won many hearts. But how much is too much, when we’re experimenting with bizarre ingredients, or reinventing a classic, such as lassi? Pankaj Gupta, founder of Oye Kake, which served up 40 variations of the dairy last year, shares that one should remember that the aim is to enhance flavours. “It should be better, if not the same; otherwise, the idea makes no sense,” he notes, giving us the example of a salted caramel, and an avocado lassi. “A lot of people prefer khari or salted lassi; for them, salted caramel offers the balance of salty and sweet. Similarly, we did peanut butter and avocado lassis because any kind of nutty or fatty foods work well with dairy, improving it.”