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Ever need a drink to feel like you need to balance out the day? You may be onto something.
Cocktails can help you harmonize your energies, thanks to a savvy duo at The Grand Bevy, a creative beverage service based in Los Angeles.
Gypsy, a chakra reader (and yes, that is her real first name), and Ally DeVellis, lead bartender at The Grand Bevy, have combined forces to execute a chakra mixology program designed to help you align the life force energies that flow through your body.
Basically, unblock your energy centers with a boozy beverage.
“Taking care of one’s health is the most fundamental way we can love ourselves, which, in turn, allows us to better love others,” explains DeVellis. “Chakra mixology is basically the blending of two very different services, working together to create unique and individual-specific cocktails.”
Based on the ancient Hindu system, chakras are focal points of one’s subtle body, a place where energies flow through channels to keep your body balanced. Though they are unseen, the idea is that the chakras connect to very real organs. According to the scriptures, which date back thousands of years, there are seven chakras rising from the pelvis: root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye, and crown. Each corresponds to a specific area of the body, from the base of the spine to the top of the head, as well as color, such as green or blue. When these points see blockage, the energy cannot flow, throwing off one’s mental, emotional, and physical health.
In those cases, you need to clear the gunk. A chakra reader, like Gypsy, will take stock of your aura and help you understand what areas are in need of some attention to clear the space. “We ignore ourselves and our bodies too much sometimes,” says Gypsy, who prefers not to give her last name. “Life, stress, illness trauma—there’s not enough self-care. When your chakras are aligned, that life force flows through us and gives us the strength our bodies need to thrive.”
Typical methods to balance chakras include breath work and meditation, but foods, herbs, and liquids are thought to be important too. That’s where the mixology comes in. Fresh herbs, spices, tinctures, house-made oleos, and clear base spirits all stock the apothecary-like bar for The Grand Bevy’s chakra cocktails. In fact, plenty of today’s cocktail ingredients actually got their start as medicines, so it’s not a stretch to think these tipples could have positive effects.
Gypsy starts by reading a guest’s aura, which she admits is sometimes easier with some customers than others. For some people, she can see an aura across the room or simply feel the vibrations of it. For others, she has to home in to understand where the imbalance lies among the chakras. Once she has established the location of the blockage, she’ll collaborate with DeVallis on what ingredients will alleviate some of the obstruction. The cocktail not only takes into account helpful ingredients but also reinforces the color of the chakra. “I envision the color of the chakra and set forth an intention to open that chakra up,” Gypsy says of the importance of the drink’s hue.
For example, the duo crafts a heart chakra cocktail to promote self-love. As the heart chakra is synonymous with the color green, the cocktail utilizes lush, fresh herbs; gin as the spirit; and green chartreuse, a French liqueur made from dozens of botanicals. They tailor the pressed juices and syrups to each guest. “The emotional issues that it relates to are love, relationships, and inner peace,” DeVellis says. “That cocktail ties into a lot of what it means to put energy into that chakra.”
Similarly, the crown chakra cocktail includes butterfly pea flower, an herb native to Southeast Asia that is used in many herbal teas and for its medicinal properties in Ayurveda. It’s full of antioxidants, for one, but herbalists also believe it can help promote brain function, which is why it closely relates to the chakra located on top of the skull. Balancing the solar plexus, which connects to the stomach, liver, and digestion, involves a cocktail full of warm spices, like ginger and turmeric, to speed up a sluggish gastrointestinal system.
Chakra mixology does not force you to drink cough-syrup-like concoctions. If you’re not a fan of an ingredient, DeVellis will work her apothecary magic to sub in another element to make sure you love what you sip. “We keep the cocktails flexible enough to interchange the base spirit, modifiers, and garnishing in accordance to guest preferences,” DeVellis says. “We figure out what the guests [feel] like drinking while still keeping in line with the reading.”
Whether or not it actually clears your chakra, it’s dramatic to see imbibers walking around a room carrying vibrant cocktails and talking about their energies, DeVellis adds. “No two cocktails are exactly the same,” she says. “It serves as a conversation starter, which is ultimately, a great thing to facilitate from our perspective as hospitality professionals.”
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