Indian Whisky and the IMFL Question

Indian whisky is a product of the British period, when Scotch and Irish spirit was shipped to the cantonments and a local industry grew to supply the garrisons and the clubs. The term IMFL, Indian-made foreign liquor, is the trade and excise name for spirits made in India in the style of imported ones: whisky, rum, brandy, gin and vodka. It is carried today by large distilling houses and by the state excise systems that license, tax and restrict its sale. The category belongs to the commercial drinking culture of the towns and not to the village tradition of toddy, feni and mahua.

Most Indian whisky is blended from neutral spirit distilled from molasses, with a smaller share of malt or grain whisky added for character and flavour. By the standard of Scotland and Ireland, which require grain or malt, such a spirit is not whisky at all, and that distinction is the heart of the IMFL question. A smaller body of Indian single malt is made from malted barley, distilled in pot stills and matured in oak, where the heat of the climate shortens maturation and increases the loss to evaporation. Bottlings are sold by strength, commonly 42.8 per cent alcohol by volume, and by the state in which the buyer lives, since excise rules differ from one state to the next.

Indian whisky is drunk with soda, water or ice in the club, the bar and the home, and it is taken beside salted, fried and spiced snacks such as masala peanuts, chicken tikka, fried fish and seekh kebab. The structural reason is that salt, fat and char meet a diluted, sweetish spirit and clear the palate between mouthfuls. Soda lengthens the drink so that it can be sipped slowly across a long meal of dry-roasted dishes. Single malt is better taken with a little water and with plain food.