Best of Weekender: A club for single malt lovers, the food-faith connection, and a brand that lets you wear your cause

“A Sunday well spent brings a week of content.”

In today’s ultra-busy times, weekends seem to be the only time when we can indulge in some R&R. And Weekender has it all sorted with what most of us would like over the weekend: books, food, and single malt!

Scotland may have traditionally been the preserve of single malt whisky, but scotch is now being produced across the world. Japanese single malt climbing up the popularity charts (think Yamakazi, Hibiki, and Suntory), and India is also making its own single malts, including Bangalore-based Amrut and Goa-based

Paul John.

Bangalore's Single Malt Amateur Club is creating a community of people passionate about whisky. Launched by Hemanth Rao and Harsha Thimmaiah in 2011, the club is a platform for amateurs, professionals, and connoisseurs to share experiences and information on single malt whisky.

The club now has 3,800 members, and offers whisky tours, tasting sessions, master classes, specialty glassware, and more.

Meanwhile, also in Bangalore, a startup is reinventing a centuries-old food as a healthier alternative for vegetarians.

India has a significant number of vegetarians. As per surveys cited by Food and Agricultural Organisation and USDA, around 40 percent of India’s population is vegetarian, numbering approximately 400 million – the highest in the world.

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, many people – including vegetarians – are on the lookout for healthier alternatives to consume. This is a trend that Bengaluru-based nutrition startup Vegolution recognised.

Launched in 2021 under Bengaluru-based nutrition startup Vegolution, Hello Tempayy is a plant-based protein-rich offering made by fermenting non-GMO soybeans, and aims to make vegetarian food more nutritious.

Food! Could there be anything we all love as much? CS Lewis summed it up aptly: “Eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably.”

Perhaps that’s why Shoba Narayan’s new book shows food as the gateway to heaven.

‘Food and Faith, a pilgrim’s journey through India,’ as its author Shoba Narayan says, is “largely about Hinduism written by a (skeptical) Hindu who seeks to answer larger questions about faith”. And she finds food to be the least contentious medium to discuss the role of religion in one’s life today.

In the book, she focuses on the prasadam (sacred food offerings) of each place of worship that she visited. She says using food as an anchor seemed like a “good way to parse the temples each with specific creation-myths, rituals, and recipes”.

The food we eat has a massive bearing on every aspect of our heath, including the skin.

The skin is a barometer of internal health – and almost every ancient wisdom expert agrees. One of the biggest blunders that many people make with having great skin is falling into the loop of prescription antibiotics and topical steroids or antibiotics.

Relying on expensive treatments is not the ultimate route to having great skin. Not everyone can afford it. It has to do with smart choices with food, skin products, supporting key systems, managing stress, and the right form of exercise. Even if you change one of these areas every week, you will find your skin improving dramatically.

Now that the skin is glowing, how about shopping for a brand that resonates with your values and causes? Try an Indian merchandise brand that lets you wear your cause close to your heart.

The team at Motherland believes being Indian is the energy and spirit signified by its pop culture. The Delhi-based brand publishes digital magazines and manufactures merchandise with sub-culture themes, which offer “the right balance of style, quality, and affordability”.

In a conversation with YS Weekender, V Sunil, Co-founder, Motherland Joint Ventures, says, “We wanted to create a brand that allows us to express our affinity and love for our Indian DNA while looking and feeling good about ourselves. It’s about flying the flag in style.”