There was a time I never took alcohol in any form .
Now I enjoy my rare drink with good friends
Its social drinking for mellowed evenings .
Whisky single malted or blended isnt my choice though i can nurse one on the rocks ..
the puritans say whisky should be swallowed neat without ice which destroys the release of free radicals that cause the ping .
I dont know ,but whiskey to me was always a bit bitter and i gorge a lot of fried snacks to help me along with it .
Of course you want my choice of whiskey for future reference ,its American bourbon the popular JD rather than the peated oaked antiquity in fancy bottles of Scotch !
Rum is a favourite being an ingredient of my most favoured cocktail Mojhito pronounced without the J unless you are drunk .😁
I really cant find much to talk about the litanies of a single malted whisky like the Glinvilet over a blended Chivas regal .
Whiskey is for cold countries .
You cant sit in a humid Singapore or Chennai nursing your scotch poison for that one needs a cool cocktail .🤗😃😆🎉
My other favourite being Margarita
The pure agave drink with a dash or orange liquer ,plenty of ice and served in a salt frosted glass with a stuck lime is made to order for a warm day better than sitting with a tall glass of frozen beer .
The one occasion I did enjoy my Budweiser and its foamed fill was on a long talk with my dear cousin Balan on our apartment balcony looking out on a drizzly day
Thats exactly what I ordered in Kuala lumpur in the back streets of Bintang or in downtown Miri in Mings coffee ,which was a cosy bar near the Pullmans hotel where me and friend yuva stayed on a weekend .
The coffee bit was a red herring as it was a boisterous bar with sidewalk tables where one could savour ones favourite drink without any cop pushing his long nose into the glass unlike in Cochin ,where liqour is sold by Government and there are more drunks than politicians with most mallus not knowing how to spell social drinking .
In Kerala most drinking is surreptious with helmet clad gentlemen joining raucous ques in state beverage outlers to get thier refreshments and downing them with concotions spiced to burn ones guts and descend into dramatic disorientation and regurgitation
Of course not all but iam talking of general trend .
Theres no place one could meet a good friend over a drink and part but smoky bars with mustachioed villaionous ruffians in lungies downing thier drinks with sozzled stares !
Coming back to ny story the Singapore sling was discovered in the famous Raffles hotel bar in the city in colonial days though I had seen it there I hadnt stayed there but I did stay in Raffles Dubai though on a weekend for a meeting but I didnt hit thier bar !
The same happened to me in Adress downtown opposite Burj khaleefa in its 64th floor bedroom .
I did try the sling twice once as a transit passenger in Bangkok enroute to Taiwan where i would have Tiger beer to wash down a steak sizzler in a street food paradise .
Coming back to the sling its actually a cocktail of Gin .cherry flavoured brandy benedictine pineapple juice lime juice and grenadine with ice in a shaker .
The second time was in Changi itself !!
It was on a frosty december morning a shivering me entered a Manhattan bar sat on a high stool with Holywood like characters sitting around me with pointed shoes and hanging cigars and ordered a Manhattan cocktail with a flourish and was served with panache by a bartender who did the magic with his shaker while talking to the mafia politely, ignoring the overdressed Indian .
suitably warmed I walked into a dusky New york evening .
It was wine with a romantic dinner when we held long fluted glasses of the sparkler before we saw the skimpies dance in Lido in Paris...
cocktails or beer or scotch dont fit into Paris nor do they when one poses with the junior Abba band in distant Stockholm .
I also do like my Vodka with Sprite my favourite soft drink with lots of ice on long evenings with friends in Brunei but nothing to beat the rum delights with Yuva my intensivist fellow drinker no not intense fellow drinker .
Brandy is one drink i havent had much and after coming to India i find it strange to see people pose with Breezers !!
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