Heritage on the Rocks

FROM LOCAL BREWS TO PREMIUM POURS, INDIA'S INDIGENOUS SPIRITS ARE FINALLY GETTING THEIR DUE-ONE CRAFTED SIP AT A TIME.

- VIDHI TAPARIA

FLIPPING THROUGH LUFTHANSA'S magazine on a flight across Europe in 2014, Nitin Vishwas saw an article about London's first meadery in 500 years. Intrigued, he contacted his childhood friend Rohan Rehani. Both are fans of The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, tales based on mythology and history in which mead is mentioned often.

Was someone making mead again? Mead, the drink made from fermented honey, finds mention in Celtic, Chinese and Greek history. Vishwas and Rehani couldn't find any mead in nearby wine shops. “If we can't find it,” said Rohan, “why not make it?”

They experimented with honey and recipes at home. Getting the right honey was tough, and they became beekeepers.

Mead has a slightly higher alcohol by volume (ABV) of 5-20% than beer (4-7%) but less than whisky, vodka and rum (all around 40%). Going commercial meant paying excise. Finally, Maharashtra put mead in the wine category in 2017. And Moonshine Meadery was born.

Getting new highs

India's craft liquor makers must woo consumers hooked to foreign-origin drinks such as beer, gin, rum, vodka and whisky. While every region has Some intoxicating brew made locally, organised players are upscaling old favourites such as Goa’s cashew nut drink feni or creating Indian versions of foreign liquors such as tequila.

Only states can tax liquor and don’t have to share the revenues, so it is a major revenue stream. The three tax categories are imported liquor, such as whisky, beer, rum and vodka; locally made varieties, classified as IMFL or Indian-made foreign liquor; and country liquor. Country liquor is the cheapest way to get intoxicated but is seen as downmarket, though volumes have attracted organised distillers.