Where Chola history meets Chennai’s cocktail scene

The Cholas ruled much of southern India for centuries, building a kingdom whose influence reached across the Indian Ocean becoming part of the wider cultural and commercial world that historian William Dalrymple has described as the “Indosphere”. Their world left behind extraordinary records in stone and inscription, including glimpses of the food offered in temple kitchens. ITC Grand Chola, Guindy has taken that history as inspiration for Cholatails, a cocktail menu that reaches into Chola-era ingredients, landscapes, trade, and mythology.

What if Chola history came as a cocktail?

We started with the Roja. Gin, aromatised wine, litchi, rose, lime, and chia seeds settled at the bottom of the glass, and the whole thing a soft pink. The drink is delicate and floral, a fitting beginning for history-laden menu, where flowers have never been far from food, ritual or celebration.

The fish on this coast has long been part of its culinary identity, and the Meen varuval that arrived at the table carried that connection. Flaky, mildly spiced, with a deep red char on the outside and a faint tang underneath.

The Pachai came next and this is our personal favourite. Vodka, moringa, green apple, lime, fizz, drawing on the green abundance associated with the Sangam Tamil landscape, Marutham. The murungai is present but only faintly, which is the right decision: it adds an earthiness that grounds the green apple without alarming anyone who approaches moringa with suspicion.

Doctors’ pride arrived with a history lesson embedded in its recipe. Avarampoo, or Tanner’s Cassia, has a longstanding place in South Indian traditional medicine, including Siddha practice. Here it sits alongside whisky, milk and lime, lending a gentle, earthy note that makes the drink really taste like something a physician might have prescribed and a traveller might have gladly accepted.

The Paniyaram is not the fluffiest version in the city but it is definitely among the crispiest. The Karuvepilai yera, curry leaf prawn, has a muted herb note and prawns that are softer than expected.

The Roman Connection is bright and light with gin, apple, elderflower, arugula and lime, and is an ode to the trade routes that carried Chola goods to Rome and Roman goods back.

We ended with the Dark Spell from the zero-proof menu: raspberry, blackberry, lime, jasmine. Inspired by Chola resilience, the menu says, where glory outshone the dark. The raspberry rises over the blackberry and the jasmine holds everything together.

Rs 750 onwards. 11 am to 1 am at The Cheroot – Malt Bar and 5 pm to 12 am at Tranquebar, ITC Grand Chola, Guindy.

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