The Satanic Verses: Save the Date, What to Drink

Two thumbs up for this 100% Indian cocktail

Introduction

Greetings, bookworms! Over in the Whatsapp group we have voted on a meeting time to discuss The Satanic Verses, and/or the companion book The Rushdie Affair. The latter book explains the “and/or”:

There was said to be an informal Club of Thirty in London, made up of people who started Rushdie’s novels and never got beyond page thirty.

Club of Thirty members are welcome to join the Club of Five Hundred Sixty for discussing the book, the controversy, and its implications in the 21st century.

Date: Sunday, December 10, 2023
Time: 8:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (UTC-5:00)

Zoom link will follow; watch here or join the WhatsApp group.

That said, it is time to think of an appropriate drink to pair with the book discussion.

The Ingredients

Thums Up

Thums Up is an Indian cola with a unique flavor—kind of like Coke with a little spice kick. It may be the only positive externality of populist protectionism…ever. In 1977, Coca Cola was forced to abandon its bottling operations in India due to a law that would have required it to sell 60% of its Indian equity to Indian shareholders—and reveal its trade secret formula to them. It was willing to part with the equity but not the secrets, so it departed the subcontinent in a huff.

Ramesh Chauhan, part-owner of the Parle food company (famous for its Parle-G “biscuits”, which are actually cookies to us red-blooded Americans), created a new formula from scratch and released it as Thums Up.

It is better than Coca Cola.

Where to find: your neighborhood Indo-pak grocery store should have it, or you can find it on Amazon.

Old Monk Rum

Of course you must mix an indigenous cola with an indigenous spirit. That spirit is Old Monk Rum, invented in 1954 by Col. Ved Ratan Mohan after a visit to Europe, where he was inspired by the beer-brewing Benedictines who became the namesake for his rum. It comes in a monk-shaped bottle, so you know it’s good:

Where to find: You might need to search your local liquor stores. I found some at a nearby Total Wines and More.

Recipe

Hey, I’m no Peter Suderman, so you’re just going to have to experiment with ratios yourself. Here’s a guess:

2 oz Thums Up
4 oz Old Monk Rum
A splash of lime juice?

Pour ingredients over ice in a highball glass and stir. And what shall we call this cocktail? Well, it’s like a Cuba Libre with an Indian flair. So how about we call it a Jai Hind?