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Business News/ Companies / It’s all about the company
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It’s all about the company

It’s all about the company

Photograph: iStockphotoPremium

Photograph: iStockphoto

Earlier this summer, I endured a day of sporting attrition at The Oval watching the first Test match between England and South Africa. I watched as the Proteas ground down the English in what was, quite frankly, one of the most boring days of cricket I have ever had the displeasure to witness.

Thankfully, this is England and, far from being a distraction, the odd rain delay here and there provided a welcome break from watching Jacques Kallis constantly ‘‘gardening" around his wicket whenever any young man with three lions on his shirt found anything near resembling line and length. In total, I think, I witnessed less than 150 runs being added to the total during an entire day’s play.

But that’s the nature of cricket, even sport in general; you never quite know what you’re going to get for your money. One thing you can be in control of, however, is the company you keep at these events as well as the booze you consume through the day. Who can’t fall in love with a game based around lunch and tea? With those two scheduled breaks, and many more due to rain, they provide the perfect opportunity to whip up the odd cocktail in between here and there.

Photograph: iStockphoto

Both hideously easy drinks to knock up, these can make an unenforced break fly past. The Tom Collins is made using just gin, lemon juice, sugar and sparkling water. I like to use Tanqueray, with about two-thirds as much lemon juice, a spoonful of sugar, stirred, and then topped up with sparkling water and ice. This drink is so refreshing, it’s untrue.

For the whisky lovers in the group, the Old Fashioned also is an easy cocktail popularized recently by the American TV show Mad Men. In the bottom of a glass, douse a brown sugar cube with Angostura bitters and fill the glass with water to about halfway up the sugar cube. Crush this down and stir until the sugar crystals have dissolved. Fill the glass with ice and pour 50ml of whisky (I like to use Johnnie Walker Black Label, but traditionally this would have been an American whiskey), put a slice of orange, a cherry, stir well and serve. These drinks should be a welcome break from yet another beer in the stands and will refresh as well as amaze those around you.

But on this fateful day at The Oval, as play slowed and slowed, our conversation did the opposite— gathering pace as we put the world to rights. All subjects were covered, from politics to polo, as every so often our chat was interrupted by weak applause for a rare South African boundary.

The overriding story from the day was told to me by Olly, who had been reading an interview with Stuart Broad. In the piece, ‘‘Broady" had been talking about a game the England team play when the boys go out for dinner—credit card roulette.

The rules are simple; at the end of a meal, a small ‘‘pocket" is made from a napkin on the table. All those in attendance put a credit card in, and the waiter is invited to pull them out, one by one, from the makeshift pocket. The last card is responsible for covering the whole bill. A simple and, dare I say it, genius way to settle that age-old debate of who is going to pick up the tab.

As we complete 12 issues of Indulge, my hope is that my columns, coupled with the Whisky Special released in December, have provided you with a light, a beacon if you will, through the world of drinks, especially that of spirits.

Above all else, however, I hope this series of writings has engendered in you, dear reader, the idea that drinks are social glue.

Often, going to a cricket match is not so much about the game itself; it’s about spending quality time with good friends, chatting about the mundane, catching up on family stories, sharing community.

And this is what a drink should be in your world: a campfire to gather around. Whatever your favourite tipple, I guarantee the best mixers for it are conversation and friends. I

Joel Harrison is a drinks writer and consultant and co-founder of the website Caskstrength.net. He is on Twitter at @WeHeartWhisky

Respond to this column at indulge@ livemint.com

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Published: 30 Aug 2012, 09:26 PM IST
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