Springtime musings: Here’s a quick round-up of the announcement of India’s best bars and how they actually fare up

The pandemic seems to be receding (hopefully not just briefly) and people are once again thronging bars and restaurants. Few things stand changed—social distancing between tables, masked servers, people reserving before coming and honouring the timings (almost)— but for the rest, it all looks pretty open and buzzing.

This was good timing then for the announcement of India’s 30 best bars. The winner was Bar Tesouro from Goa, a small bar nestled in the deep south of the state which, to me, has been a sure-shot winner since my maiden visit. It is heads and shoulders above all other bars in the country in terms of innovation and quality of produce. The remaining 30 had a fair share of usual suspects and while the debate over which deserved to be where will always ensue, safe to say, we as a nation have a worthy list to navigate our way through. Other worthy bars to visit— Copitas (BLR), Lair (DEL), and Bombay Canteen (MUM). Kudos to Man’s World and Tulleeho for pulling this off and making it an annual feature on the national F&B calendar. One (seeming) anomaly I must point out—hotel bars, while present, were conspicuous by their scantness on the list. Given all the resources at their disposal (versus tiny standalone bars eking it out with limited means), it’s high time our five stars read the writing on the wall and got creative with their drinks rather than remaining mired in processes and audits or running restaurants which solely rely on food for their revenue.

That said, here’s a quick summary of a few fun beverages I have recently tried.

Indri Indian Single Malt is the latest add to the autochthonous shelf and it has one strong USP—good solid oak ageing. Barely any other local brand can claim to age their ware for so long (at this price point) and the difference shows. Watch this space for another exquisite super-aged product which they will launch soon, one that I was privy to taste and found quite magnificent.

I am not a fan of packaged coffees (I much prefer freshly ground beans) but this here, Kings Coffee, made with 100% Arabica Vietnamese beans, was a sincere effort that translated into a fragrant flavourful drink. The canned versions were a hit in the household but even more utile (for me) were their bags for making a cold-brew.

The Perry Road Peru is a readymade cocktail from Stranger & Sons, done in collaboration with The bombay Canteen. They did a preview sometime back and it was a hit so now the official bottled version has been launched commercially, to much applaud and success. Pink Guava and chilli are great local flavours, cognisant and dripping with nostalgia, and laced with the right gin, this a fun easy sip with ice, or dialled down with some soda or tonic perhaps.

Alcohol-free spirits and beers are a growing category and recently I got to try the range from Zero per cent. I will honestly share that I don’t like most products in this category. Well, their gin and rum (or rather, Ginish and Rumish) were flavourful but not identical enough to the real mcCoy to deceive my taste buds. Sure, they worked in a mix, buried under layers of sugar and other flavours, but straight up, they didn’t cut it for me. The hazy IPA was a nice drink but not ale-y enough for me. By contrast, Biere des Amis, a wheat beer I tried in Dubai was a fabulously well-executed zero-proof version.

And in parting, since I have been on a rigorous diet to get into summer (pool/beach) shape, I have learnt one very valuable lesson. Sugar should be classified as a drug and there need to be laws against it. Just removing that from my daily intake has made me shed weight faster than a hibernating bear with an anxiety attack. And if you watch the carbs, then you are on the best possible plan to being thin. That said, don’t substitute with aspartame because that’s a carcinogen. A rap on the knuckles to all brands of tonic water, seltzers and RTDs who use Aspartame and then claim to be low-cal. Voila, my two bits’ worth.

Sure, it makes meals a bit limiting (and also you a lot less socially acceptable what with dietary restrictions of the ‘what’ and ‘how much’ kind; I know, it happened to me) but in the end, when you see what stares back at you in the mirror, you realise why narcissism isn’t so bad after all.

Meanwhile, we are now bracing ourselves for the next year and I am hoping that the the excise departments across the country will impress us with new policies that make the availability and movement of premium alcohol across the board a lot easier.

Facilitating access enhances awareness which helps curb binge habits. Let’s see what lies in store ahead.

The writer is a sommelier