An Indo-American Compatibility of the Palate Kind

That Indians love their whisk(e)y is well known . But do they really love whiskey more than whisky? It may surely be a debatable issue.

For the uninitiated, the American and the Irish pronounce the word with an extra 'e' while the rest of the world largely calls it 'whisky'. The difference though is more than just cosmetic, as all these whiskies stand out in their distinctive niche.

To strengthen the position of American whiskey among  beverages denizens of New Delhi, Shatbhi Basu, celebrity mixologist and American Whisky Ambassador in India, recently ramp-walked some popular American whiskies sans their oft associated pompousness. The whiskies were paired with Tapas styled Indian food with a Delhi essence by Vipul Gupta, Senior Sous Chef  WelcomHotel Sheraton. The venue was fit to the tee as "Delhi Pavilion"- the multi-cuisine restaurant at the hotel.

Whiskey or Cologne?

Shatbhi started the evening on a rather unconventional note. She urged the audience to rub some whiskey served in a shot glass in their palms and appreciate the aromas. The audience seemed to gel with her thought of equating the resultant  aromas to those of a quality cologne! Soon enough, other whiskies for the evening followed, embossing their individual personalities through innovative presentation and deliberate food thought.

Knowing American Whiskey

So what is special about American whiskey?  For starters Shatbhi dispelled some myths- the most common  being that American whiskey implies only Bourbon. She clarified that apart from corn, an American whiskey could also be made from other grains like wheat and rye or as a blend of more than one grain. Explaining further on the USPs of these whiskies, she highlighted that  majority of whiskey producing areas in America offer high temperature variations, resulting in much faster ageing (thrice as fast on an average) as compared to those from most other countries. She also brought out that these whiskies use only new charred barrels as opposed to second use barrels (significantly American) that are common with whiskies produced elsewhere. 

The Tasting

Those pressed for time, may get a decent perspective on the evening through my FB album embedded as under. Just click on it to go through the individiual photos with descriptions. However, those who would like to get a wee bit of extra whiskey punch, reading further is highly recommended.

The tasting lineup 

First Course

Maker's Mark Red Seal, ABV 45%
Type: Kentucky Straight Bourbon
Presentation: Iced whiskey with a sweet dark date garnish

Maker's Mark is a  craft distilled product made from corn, barley and "red winter wheat" rather than the usual rye. It also goes at a lower strength into the cask at 110 proof as opposed to the more normal 125 proof. These variations aim at making the whisky (spelt here the Scottish way as they come from a Scottish heritage)  as mellow as possible without too much spice on the palate. The bottle is sealed twice i.e. capped and then dipped in wax for added protection.

Paired with: 

Dilli chaat plate (Bhalla papdi upside down, Aloo Edamame tikki)

An Indian savoury snack incorporating various textures and flavours. The  honeyed/spicy characteristics of the whisky matched well with a mélange of sweet, sour and spicy flavours of the chaat. The bite of date lent it an extra savouriness.

Second Course

Jack Daniel's, ABV 40%
Type: Tennessee Sour Mash
Presentation: Iced whiskey topped by a citrus foam.

Jack Daniel's is a Tennessee whiskey from Lynchburg. Every drop of this whiskey is filtered through ten feet of activated maple charcoal and wool before being matured.

Paired with:

Kadak paneer, achari asparagus with fresh cress salad (V)- Crispy cottage cheese coupled with pickled asparagus and microgreens 

Delhi fish fry, achari asparagus with fresh cress salad (NV)

Sipping the  iced whiskey through the citrus foam  made for a mellower experience which was good with the 'crisp outside, soft inside'  fish & paneer as well as the crunchy and tangy asparagus.

Third Course

Jim Beam White, ABV 40%
Type: Kentucky Straight Bourbon
Presentation: Cocktail "Pomegranate Sour" (recipe in image below)

Seven generations of the Beam family have been distilling at the Jim Beam distillery, making it the number one selling bourbon in the world. Jim Beam White is one of the cleanest, yet full flavored bourbons with caramel and vanilla sweetness followed by a peppery spiciness. Jim Beam is now bottled in India making it even more accessible.

Paired with:

Podi Idli with Upma cigarillo (V)
Steamed garlic pod centered dumplings, crisp cigarillo with mushy filling.

Chettinad chops with Upma cigarillo (NV)
Slow cooked succulent lamb chops, crisp cigarillo with mushy filling

"Pomegranate Sour" worked perfecty as a foil for the podi and chettinad spices- cleansing and refreshing the palate.

Fourth Course

Woodford Reserve, ABV 43.2%
Type: Kentucky Straight Bourbon
Presentation: Chilled, infused with a saffron strand and with an aam papad (semi dried mango pulp) garnish.

Woodford Reserve is the only triple copper pot still distilled Kentucky Straight Bourbon whiskey. It is made in small batches to preserve it's artisanal character.

Paired with:

Badam ki Galouti, mango kachumber (V)
Browned almond paste, Sprouted moong pistou, saffron flat bread, salad

Silvatte ke shammi, mango kachumber (NV)
Hand pounded lamb boti kababs, saffron flat bread, and salad

Shatbhi called this combination as "Lucknow meeting Kentucky".  The intensely dried fruit and sweet spice flavours of the Woodford, further infused with a hint of saffron and served with a bite of aam papad, blended effortlessly with the softly spiced galouti and mango kachumber.

Fifth Course

Jack Daniel's Liqueur, ABV 35%
Type: Tennessee Honey
Presentation: Chilled, straight up

Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey is a whole lot of Jack with a little bit of honey. It has warm honey, caramel and vanilla flavours with a little nuttiness and hints of anise

Paired with:

"The Three Sweet Act"- an amalgamation of three cities on a plate. The Beetroot halwa from the Mughal era, the Alphonso payesh from the contemporary Bengalis and the saffron milk solids samosa from the northern India.

The iced Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey complemented the trio of favourite Indian dessert flavours, with the rudder of balancing acidity.

"The Team" with Shatbhi Basu (middle) and Chef Vipul Gupta (extreme right). Rishi Raj Singh, Resident Manager Welcomhotel Sheraton (2nd from left) can  also be seen in the photo.

The Showstopper

Even as the guests took charge of their mobiles to summon their respective wheels, Shatbhi urged them to stay put for a smokin' hot experience. 'Smokin' ' it was literally, and 'hot' it was on the chutzpah front. Choco Nut Madness (see recipe in image below)  aptly contained some of the favourite ingredients of the American way of life, wrapping up the evening on a lingering American note! 

P.S. Recipes above have been deliberately put as images to facilitate downloading like any other image from the www. Please feel free to download  and share with fellow whiskey enthusiasts.

What Whiskey will not cure...there is no cure for!

The popular Irish proverb at the title conveys how passionate the Irish are towards their whiskey. In fact the passion towards  respective native distillates extends to other major whiskey producing nations, so much so, that we have different ways to spell it too! While the Americans share the spelling with the Irish, the Scots and most of the remaining world call it  Whisky minus the "e". The intrinsic  nature of the  the liquid though remains the same-  fermented and distilled from malt/ grain with variations in production styles that lend unique characteristics to each whiskey. This was the focus of an evening of Jameson Irish whiskey  at Hotel Le Meridien New Delhi under their "Spirit of Nero" program  for select whisky lovers on an unusually wet September day much to the delight of Delhiites.  

The event was presented by Darragh Ryan, the Brand Ambassador of Jameson in India and started with a multi media presentation amid anecdotes and funny boners. This was followed by a blind sampling of American, Scottish and Irish (read Jameson) whiskies and followed by animated discussions between the whisky fans with copious amounts of whiskey doing the rounds.

About Irish Whiskies

Darragh Ryan- Brand Ambassador, Jameson

The Irish are widely recognised as inventors of whiskey and the product term itself is derived from the Gaelic Uisge Beatha (meaning Water of Life and pronounced Ushka Baaha). The Ushka part gave birth to the modern day term Whiskey that subsequently became popular throughout the world. It is also a known fact that the Irish quest to use unmalted grain along with malt to lower costs of production (owing to high taxes on malted barley) resulted in a whiskey with a lighter palate and has been the genesis of blended whiskies.
Two unique aspects of Irish whiskey highlighted during the evening were:

• More refined taste due to the practice of triple distillation as compared to double distillation for Scotch and single for American whiskies. For whisky connoisseurs though, more number of distillations may not necessarily mean better whisky as repeated filtering may strip the whiskey of certain desirable phenolic elements that lend the peculiar taste  preferred by some.So it boils down to individual preferences.

• The Irish pride of not peating their malt( a process of drying malted barley using Peat as fuel) which according to them emphasizes the inherent flavours of the drink rather than getting masked by smoke. But then peat fans have their own place under the Sun and the Irish have been sensible to respect this fact  by having  peated whiskies like Coonemara coming from the Cooley distillery.

The organisers also did well to place samples of malted and unmalted barley, unaged and aged whiskies and pieces of Bourbon and Sherry casks to give a physical feel of the important determinants of the final product.

Different Grains with  chips of Bourbon and Sherry Casks

Malted Barley- fluffy....Unmalted - conservative

Present day Irish Whiskey Industry

The Irish whiskey industry has seen lots of consolidation over the past century and as on date, the country has just three active large capacity distilleries located in the towns of Bushmills, Cooley and Midleton collectively producing around 28 million litres annually. In addition, there are producers not involved in active distillation but have old stocks that are being blended and bottled. Jameson is part of the portfolio of Irish Distillers Group (IDG) which in turn is part of French liquor giant Pernod-Ricard. Though the Jameson portfolio has several variants in terms of length of maturation and composition ratio of respective blends , at the event we were offered their basic label Jameson Irish Whiskey presumably due to the focus not being on  tasting the entire range but that of highlighting the distinct identity of an Irish whiskey vis-à-vis  its American and Scottish peers. I found the whiskey offered  to be light and refreshing on the palate with vanilla and sherry notes followed by a medium finish.This could be the kind of whiskey, of which you could  have a dram or two in the afternoon , without the need to hit the sack before getting back to work!

Darragh also informed us that at a retail price of approx Rs. 1700.00 in New Delhi, Jameson Irish Whiskey is likely to be perceived as good value for money  as compared to its American and Scottish contemporaries (read Johnnie Walker Black Label and Jack Daniels etc) if one is not too staunch on a particular preference. I happened to agree with him with the stated caveat.

A major highlight of the evening was the presence of whisky connoisseurs from different walks of life.There were renowned journalists, designers, brand managers, food and beverage experts and several others. The icing on the cake was the presence of celebrity food critics Rocky and Mayur  of the famous TV food show Highway on My Plate who mingled freely with the guests sharing those extra bytes- and  amicably rendering some sobering advice on not hitting the highway driving, after the indulgent evening.