Here was the challenge:
Our friend Magesh came over with his wife Sripriya and his parents last evening for dinner at our place. A few things bind Magesh and me together. Other than the fact that we studied in the same engineering college and worked in the same start up company, we also share the fact that none of our parents approve of us having alcohol. And Magesh and I are certainly not above a glass or two in the evening. On top of the fact that he cannot drink in front of his parents, I cannot either. Somehow, his mom has formed a very high opinion of me from our initial meetings. You will be amazed how speaking a few Tamil words and in general aligning with her son in case of any debate can endear yourself to any Tamilian mother suitably proud of her son!!

So the challenge was to come up with cocktails that could pass by as extremely innocuous soft drinks. The first task was to make sure that the cocktail was absolutely colorless. It had to be served in similar glasses as Sprite and such that the parents would be having to rise above all suspicions. It had to have a few bubbles, just to remove all doubts.

The second challenge was the aroma. It had to be very subtle and even then it had to stay very close to fruits and vegetables that are very common to an Indian nose. (Any uncommon smell might have given rise to unnecessary curiosity). Eventually, I went with cucumber for the first drink and orange for the second one.

Finally, the drinks had to be shorn of any garnish. The visual clues might have given away. So, needed some concentrated drops of liquer to top off without getting the advantage of the constant drip of the garnish.

The evening could not have gone any smoother. Everybody had a great time. The offending glasses were for everybody to see – as you can see in the picture – but none came away any the wiser 🙂

It was a great evening!!