Drinking alcohol was never a taboo in my family. Everybody drank – my mother, my father, my grandmother and her mother as well. When my great-grandmother died and we opened her cupboards, we uncovered huge ceramic jars full of old sherry that she had stashed away. I think she used to have a glass every night, but obviously she couldn’t drink it fast enough, left a lot of it behind, and tragically most of that fine wine had turned to vinegar. What a loss.
Point being, unlike most Hindu middle-class families, ours was a little more urbane and unorthodox. Any excuse was an excuse to crack open a bottle and drink. Like the “Every Sunday Morning Beer Sessions” where the elders sat around in my aunt’s fully air-conditioned sun-room on her open terrace, where bottles of chilled beer flowed along with cocktails, like the now forgotten Gimlet – gin and lime juice — or Tom Collins– gin with lemon juice, sugar and club soda, and our home-made Martini – Gin with Cinzano Vermouth Rosso.
Cinzano for those, who might know it, was an aperitif created by two Italian brothers, Giovanni Giacomo and Carlo Stefano Cinzano in 1757 using Italian red wine, sugar and alcohol infused with aromatic plants from the Italian Alps in a secret recipe combining 35 ingredients. Occasionally, someone would take the effort of making a few Bloody Marys — basically a spiced tomato juice with lime juice, orange juice, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, salt, mixed in with vodka, poured in a salt rimmed glass with a stalk of celery. I’d occasionally beg for a Bloody Mary without the vodka. It’s called a Virgin Mary, which my grandfather would scoff at and call a ‘Bloody Shame’.
At evening soirees, there were only three kinds of people — whiskey drinkers, dark rum drinkers and wine drinkers. The wine, however, in those days, was foul. In the early 70s, Shaw Wallace set up a winery at Hyderabad and launched a range of wines under the brand name ‘Golconda’. It tasted terrible, and I’m not even sure if it was a wine. It could well have been flavoured alcohol. The UB Group started a winery at Baramati in collaboration with Bosca of Italy using the Bangalore Blue grape. In my memory, there was Bosca, Golconda and the Goan Ports, that constituted the whole wine industry in India. Good whiskey was always smuggled into India, Vat 69, Dimple, Johnny Walker were scotch brands that featured in Hindi films and also in most bars.
With so much alcohol swirling around me, without any constraints or refrains, it wasn’t surprising that I took to drinking by the time I was out of school. There was no covertness, it was all done openly in the company of family, and at home. We were a family of drinkers. Men, women and youngsters alike.
Now as I turn 58, with 43 years of drinking behind me, I’ve had the good fortune to have tasted some of the finest whiskey, pounded the best beer, guzzled the most expensive bubbly and grape. I’ve also been to the best bars and clubs in the world and frequented the cheapest watering holes, hung out in the shadiest digs, dance bars and cabarets. Drunk in cars, planes, trains, boats, on beaches and pools, at sunrise and at sunset and all hours in between and after. Till one point where I decided that enough was enough. I gave the bottle up. I haven’t now had a sip of alcohol for the last couple of years. Although I don’t really get tempted when someone else is drinking around me, I miss alcohol only at certain times. Like I often miss holding something in my hands and sipping it, especially during wet lunches when the others are chugging G&T, or when I am abroad and the weather is nippy calling for some good Single Malt.
Last month, I was in the countryside in England, and then in Wales, the weather was good and we’d pop in at the local pub for a sundowner. Dying for a drink, but feeling miserable that I had given up, the girl behind the bar offered me a 0% Peroni Beer. That began, in me, an ever-growing love for zero-alcoholic drinks. And I can now consider myself quite hooked.
Today, there is a wide range of non-alcoholic likenesses of your favourite booze so easily available here in India. Starting with beer. Some of the world’s biggest brewers have launched 0% alcohol versions of their famous brands. Budweiser 0.0, Heineken 0.0, Hoegaarden 0.0 and Hoegaarden Rosee 0.0 are available everywhere including online.
Svami, who, a few years ago, launched first with a range of Tonic Waters, now offer Rum & Cola, G&T, and Pink G&T. All with wonderful botanicals and strawberry infusions, flavoured with juniper and various citruses. Another Indian brand of 0% alcoholic drinks is Kati Patang. They have a really refreshing juniper flavoured G&T with lemon & basil, as well as other cocktails like a Cosmopolitan with flavours of cranberry, Triple Sec, and orange. A damn good Old Fashioned with a distinctive Bourbon Whisky taste and nose with fruit juice, and notes of vanilla and nutty flavours.
While the non-alcoholic universe bloomed, a Danish beverage company called ISH beverages launched their range of ISH drinks. GinISH (made from natural botanicals such as juniper berries, coriander seeds and chilli), RumISH (made from natural botanicals such as Madagascar vanilla, nutmeg, baked apple and chilli) all delicious and all alcohol-free. And they are easily available online.
In fact, if you visit a website called Zero Percent, you can find a range of non-alcoholic drinks like Noughty – a German Sparkling Chardonnay made from grapes of southern Spain; Coast – a Belgian, alcohol-free craft beer with citrus and tropical fruit flavours and many more mixers and drinks.
My favourite, however, is this Goa-based gin with zero carbs, zero sugar, zero alcohol and only five calories. It’s aptly called Sober Gin. It tastes like gin, actually ignites your insides like gin, but doesn’t get you drunk. It’s flavoured with juniper, ashwaganda, tulsi, arjuna, angelica root and green tea extracts. I’ve taken to it completely, and have gone back to my wet lunches with Gin and Tonic. I can feel my dry days getting over.
Kunal Vijayakar is a food writer based in Mumbai. He tweets @kunalvijayakar and can be followed on Instagram @kunalvijayakar. His YouTube channel is called Khaane Mein Kya Hai. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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