On a beverages & tipples trail

Sudha Madhavan tells you how to sample a swig of the local drinks to soak in the spirit of the place

Tibetan butter tea.

Cuba Libre.

Mexican mezcal with chilli pepper and orange.

Almost always, the events that occur when travelling are random and serendipitous. They frequently don’t show up on time. Not according to any schedule made by anyone. These are the fun extras that come with travelling. These are the kind of lessons you pick up when travelling. Usually surprising and often unexpected, yet thrilling, novel, engrossing, enchanting and fascinating. Sometimes dangerous and even perhaps deadly but nevertheless priceless and unforgettable!

These are the ones that come to mind when you think about a destination you’ve visited. They are unique. A drink’s flavour that burns your mouth; the aroma of coffee in a distant country; and as I go back to the black tea I had with Konyak Naga Headhunter King Bowang, the memory simply transports me to another tea I enjoyed in Nagaland where, in the community of Lungwa, it is possible to stand with one foot in India and the other in Burma.

Then there is the po cha, which is the Bhutanese version of butter tea, also found in Tibet’s surroundings, Nepal’s surroundings, and India’s far north. It is known as gud-gud chai in Ladakh, so named because of the noise the wooden churner produces when it vigorously stirs the tea with salt and butter. It is an antioxidant and ideally suited to chilly climates. Packets of tea leaves from Bhutan are what we bring back. This tea whisks me away to a place that is extremely far away in an instant. I’m seated in Mexico City’s Buena Casa Buena Mesa. The laughter and conversation are surrounded by the oil smoke from the freshly fried churros. Little brown clay pots with coffee are delivered that taste thick black with cinnamon and sugar flavouring. It’s café de Olla (pronunciation: oya), a traditional Mexican beverage made with freshly ground coffee, cinnamon, and piloncillo (panela), unrefined cane sugar. The flavour is enhanced by the clay pot.

The aroma of a fresh brew

As he passes by, a dapper old man with a taqiyah on his head smiles at us and bids us a hearty supper. My first taste of sweetened black coffee feels heavenly. Early in the morning, you can stroll through the streets of Cuba while being swept along by the intoxicating aroma of freshly made coffee served in little cups from flasks. You have to wait in line and if your turn arrives before the flask runs out, consider yourself lucky.

Cuba is a country of a unique era of peace. Cubans always offer coffee as an hors d’oeuvre following breakfast or supper. One can work as a coffee slave in Cuba.

Moving from these to the beverages of the alcoholic variety...

Cheers to Mezcal

Without a sip of the local booze, a trip to another country is incomplete. Nothing compares to the excitement and fulfilment of enjoying a certain brew in its own country. In a charming cafe tucked away in a bylane in Oaxaca, I had my first mezcal tasting. Mezcal is consumed with reverence. Mezcal is for both good and terrible times, as the Mexicans say, “Por todo mal Mezcal y para todo bien también.” The Mexicans revere this beverage. It was the pulque, a Maguey Agave extract that dates back to Mesoamerica in its powerful, original form. The first pulque is credited to the daughter of a lord in the Toltec empire by the name of Xochitl.

We are served a lemon-soda mixture with a significant amount of mezcal at the cafe. Finding Unión de Palenqueros de Oaxaca, a modest, less well-known establishment, a Cooperative of Mezcal distillers from Santiago Matatlán, the motherland of the agave, on Calle Mariano Abasolo, we learn more about this “nectar of the gods” and decide to purchase some to take home. We also get to see the many mezcals that have been infused with pia, apple, star anise, and naturally Gusano worm larvae.

The culture of Cuban rum

The Canchánchara was created in Trinidad, Cuba, a historic town with cobbled alleys that snake up and down and in and out of charming lanes, with an attractive façade of residences from a different era on either side. The combination of Cuban rum, lime, honey, and soda is energising and traditionally served in earthenware cantaritos.

A sip of nourishment

A long-ago recollection of Sikkim, where I sat cosily wrapped in a shawl and drank warm Chaang from a cylindrical bamboo container, may make me yearn to visit the place whenever I think about it. Chaang is made from local millet that has been gently crushed with a wooden mallet after being boiled and fermented for a while. Adding warm water is done as desired... The Nagas’ traditional fermented rice beverage, Zutho, is not exclusively for adults. Everyone in the family, from newborns to great-grandfathers, enjoys it just as much. It’s meant to be very nourishing. The drink’s strength changes according to the vintage. Zutho is offered t in the horn households, often with a bite-sized piece of ginger.