India is not for beginners. How many times have you seen this on your Instagram feed? You’ve packed for the heat, brushed up on how to eat with your hands, and you know better than to wear shoes indoors. But nobody warned you about how India approaches drinking. In India, a large peg of alcohol is often mixed with soda and nursed for an hour. Hosts pour drinks for you, whether you requested it or not, and arriving at a party without snacks to accompany your whisky is considered a faux pas. Cross a state line, and the rules can change drastically; sometimes, alcohol may not even be available.
For those unfamiliar with these customs, ordering a drink can feel more like taking a social exam that you didn’t know you signed up for. Here are five drinking quirks or habits that often confuse foreigners.
In cities like Delhi, a workaround to India's expensive, restrictive bar culture has taken on a name of its own: the car-o-bar. Rather than paying pub prices or navigating the taboo of drinking at home, groups buy bottles from a liquor store and drink them parked in cars - in mall lots, market areas, even wedding venues, long after the reception has wound down. Car accessory shops in Delhi's Karol Bagh market now fit vehicles with concealed mini-fridges, illuminated cup holders and neon lighting, turning the boot into a makeshift bar counter.
Of course, this approaches the boundary of illegal drinking and driving, especially since you are in prison. It teeters uneasily close to the concept of drunk driving, even if the car remains parked. The disparity between the law as written and the culture in practice is precisely what makes the car-o-bar such an important addition to this list.
Also Read: 5 Indian Bartenders Changing The Way We Drink
Come Holi, the festival's signature drink - a chilled, spiced milk thandai - often gets a cannabis-leaf paste stirred in, becoming bhang thandai (or bhang lassi, made with yoghurt). Its roots trace back approximately 3,500 years and are linked to the worship of Shiva. This connection allows government-licensed bhang shops to sell it openly during the festival, even in cities like Varanasi. While Indian narcotics laws prohibit cannabis resin and buds, they make an exception for cannabis leaves, making this one of the few beverages in the country that occupies a legal grey area rather than a social one. Do not underestimate the second glass; it hits slower than alcohol and lingers far longer.
At Ujjain's Kal Bhairav temple, one of the fiercest forms of Shiva, devotees buy bottles of whisky or rum outside the gate and hand them to the priest, who pours a portion into the idol's mouth, and it reportedly disappears. The leftover comes back as prasad, a blessed offering meant to be consumed. It's one of five ritual offerings in tantric worship, and similar rites play out at temples in Mumbai and Bengal. In a country where liquor shops are legally barred near places of worship, watching one operate just outside the gate is a quiet lesson in how faith can rewrite rules in India.
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In India, drinking without food alongside is unusual - sometimes even considered strange. The catch-all term is chakna, the assortment of salty, spicy, tangy snacks that show up whether you're at a streetside permit room or a high-end cocktail bar, and every state claims its own speciality. Kerala's toddy culture, for instance, is built entirely around "touchings," the local word for bar snacks. The reasoning isn't just taste - it's part of India’s hospitality instinct where the host fills your glass before you ask. Therefore, leaving a guest to drink on an empty stomach is treated as neglect, not restraint. So the snack ends up mattering as much as what's in the glass.
Also Read: Why Are Young Drinkers Asking Bartenders More Questions? Inside India’s New Bar Culture
If you look closely, these rules aren't really about alcohol at all. A full glass, a full plate, a workaround born of necessity, a ritual passed down without question: it's all one impulse wearing different costumes. These unwritten rules are exactly why it catches visitors off guard. You don't learn Indian drinking etiquette by reading about it. You learn it by being poured a drink you didn't ask for, handed a plate you didn't order, and realizing, a few sips in, that you've already been let into something special – an invitation that welcomes, with open arms.
