Smells like clean spirit: What does your drink cost the earth?

In 1805, Sewak Ram, an artist working with the East India Company, painted a desolate landscape, reeling beneath a cloudless sky. In the foreground stand three palm trees, seemingly thumbing their noses at the drought.

- Mridula Ramesh

The eye is drawn to a solitary figure, clad in a loincloth and turban. He is clinging to the side of the tree, high above the earth, with a pot tied to his waist. It is a toddy tapper at work, braving the elements and the odds to collect the sap.

Toddy, made from the sap of a range of palm trees, remains a popular traditional alcohol. The sap ferments naturally and immediately. Within two hours, alcohol content rises to about 4%, rising further as time passes. Within a day, the liquid becomes vinegar.

Sociologist IM Saldana, citing 19th-century Revenue Department archives, writes that toddy acts a "supplement to food, and in years of scarcity, a substitute for food". Indeed, studies have shown that one pint of toddy meets 10% of our daily requirement of iron and nicotinic acid, besides containing trace elements of calcium, and Vitamins B1 and B2.

"Traditional drinks tend to be a good source of calories and B-vitamins, especially folate and B-12," says James McHugh, author of An Unholy Brew, a fascinating book on alcohol in ancient India, and a professor of South Asian religions at University of Southern California. These are the vitamins that can somewhat mitigate the enhanced risk of cancer that comes from consuming liquor.

That's important, because last week, US Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy declared that alcohol is so clearly linked to certain types of cancers that bottles ought to come with the same kinds of warnings as cigarette packs.

Could certain traditional brews be healthier? Traditional drinking snacks were certainly more well-thought-out. Parse them closely and they appear to be a good blend of protein, fat, fibre and fermented foods, which slow the absorption of alcohol into the bloodstream and protect the gut microbiome.

Also, "it's hard to get blind drunk on toddy," says Desmond Nazareth, founder of Agave India, a maker of heritage alcohol. "It's a volume thing," he adds.