Fast forward to our home in Calcutta, India
1971
With regard to cocktails, I recall there were numerous books on how to make them and I do remember one in particular called ‘Giggle Water’! It was a small, reddish book with a simple drawing of a glass on the front. I can still picture my father mixing drinks himself using this particular book after which he then carefully instructed the Bearer on how to perfect the various cocktails recipes which he would recreate and serve to his guests.
He would invariably insist that his own Gin (which actually was pink due to the addition of hibiscus in the process of production) was to be served neat over ice. He called it "Pinkers" which I later learnt was the popular name for his gin served at his Officers' Mess during WW2.
His constant experimentations led him to convert one of the bathrooms in our house in order to work on his beer as well as his spirit concoctions. It used to drive my mother mad with the smell of fermenting beer mixed with odours of the botanicals doing their work on the Rendle’s gin!! She hit the roof one day when some beer bottles started to explode, shattering glass everywhere. The beer had carried on fermenting in the bottle and the pressure proved too much. His escapades often proved to be a messy business!
Chris Edgcumbe-Rendle
