One of my favourite childhood memories involves saving every single paisa of my pocket money to head down to the beach and slurp on the multi-hued golas. Sticky, sweet and refreshing, the icy treats almost always left us with stained lips and tongues. As adults, the thrill isn’t quite the same; as our beverage of choice has moved from juices and colas to fancier concoctions and alcohol.
But every once in a while, we do want to feel like kids, which is how the alcoholic golas were born. Frozen cocktails, like the margarita or the daiquiri are classics that have been around for a long time. Ever since the strawberry daiquiri gained popularity, the trend of frozen cocktails has remained relevant. Even though the gola has been around for decades, this concept of combining the childhood treat gola with alcohol has picked up in India only recently. Along with the classic flavours like kala khatta, exotic flavors like passion fruit and elderflower are pretty popular. When the humble vada pav and pani puri can get redefined and find their way to fine dine tables, it’s no surprise that the golas are the newest fad in the cocktail scene.
The sweetness of the ice slushies tames the bitterness of the alcohol, making it a perfect match. As the base is ice, all sort of spirits can be used, depending on what flavours you mix with the spirit. The mixer may be a juice, fruit syrup, aerated beverage, liqueur, herbs, spices; anything that adds an extra zing and flavour to your gola. While the concept is pretty straightforward, the execution isn’t always as simple as blending your flavours in the crushed ice.
The proportions change depending on the liquid in which your ice lolly is dunked. While preparing the popsicle, you have to remember to balance out the sweet flavour of your ice lollies with something bitter i.e. either tequila or vodka. Quite similar to alcoholic golas is the Frosé, currently making New Yorkers go gaga. Frosé is an innovative mash up of pink wine, vermouth and the strawberry puree. This drink has been gaining momentum in the West since July, but hasn’t really found its footing in India. Rosé is best served chilled, and since you cannot add ice to wine, it was a challenge to keep it cold for longer periods of time. Trying to find a solution to this, a bar in New York dumped the rosé into the ice-breaking machine, and with this experiment, Frosé was born. It is now considered a great cocktail in the West during the summers, as the blend of strawberries and vermouth compliment the rosé to give it a refreshing, sweet and summery taste.
Being a fan of whiskey and Bourbon, any cocktail with Jack Daniels is my favourite. For the chocolate fans, the Jameson Irish whiskey with chocolate is to die for and if you are looking for the real deal, I definitely recommend the Vodka and Kala khatta. Recreating these golas at home might be a bit difficult as not everyone has an ice-crushing machine, but a blender is a good alternative. Make sure to not crush the ice too fine, as this will not let you bind the ice together and the gola will melt too quickly. It’s also important to not put too much alcohol. I would recommend 30 to 60 ml alcohol per gola depending on how high you want to get, and how sweet the lolly is. Frozen cocktails are always fun, but for me, a boozy gola will always win out over the rest.
The writer is a bartender, True Tramm Trunk
