DITCHED BY THE RICH, VODKA NEEDS A NEW SPIRIT

Indians buy tons of cheap vodka, but gin is the runaway leader in consumption growth when it comes to premium white spirits

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Yangdup Lama, co-founder of Sidecar Bar in Delhi, knows a thing or two about alcoholhis bar has made it to the list of Asia's 50 Best Bars and the World's 50 Best Bars. A keen observer of trends in the business, Lama says vodka's time in the limelight has passed. "Five years ago when we opened Sidecar, we always assumed vodka would be more popular than gin, but it has become the other way around. Gin consumption has been consistent, unlike vodka," he said.

A decade ago, for every 10 bottles of whisky Lama ordered, he would order an equal number of vodkas and just two or three bottles of gin. Today, while the whisky count remains the same, gin stands at about eight bottles and vodka is down to just four.

Vir Kapoor, 37, who regularly hosts parties at his west Delhi home, has also observed this shift. "A lot of my friends have become gin drinkers," he said. Vodka, long the go-to white spirit for those who weren't into brown drinks such as whisky and brandy, has fallen out of favour in his circle. "Gin never existed for a lot of us a decade ago. It was primarily whisky, vodka, and a little bit of dark rum in the winter, and a lot of beer in the summer," recalled Kapoor. It would be the norm to have at least two bottles of Absolut (Pernod Ricard's premium vodka), or Belvedere (a Polish vodka distributed by LVMH) in his bar. Later, Grey Goose (Bacardi's) made an appearance. "But today, a lot of my friends are becoming gin drinkers. These are people who don't have brown spirits. They have almost exclusively switched over to gin from vodka and something like a Bacardi white rum," he said. And so, Kapoor's bar today features four-five bottles of gin such as Bombay Sapphire, Greater Than, or Stranger and Sons during parties. Oflate, his friends have also begun to ask for high-end sipping tequila. Greater Than and Stranger and Sons are craft gins made in India.

This change at Lama's bar and Kapoor's parties is playing out across the country.