After brew pubs, crafted gin and vodka are ruling charts in metros and even Tier II cities. Tito’s MD, International, John McDonnell, Director of Aspri Spirits Arun Kumar, sommelier Magandeep Singh and mixologist Sanchayan Jana talk about how ‘mass’ has become a ‘bad word’ for millennials with Asmita Sarkar
India takes it drinks seriously now. It is no longer about swigging Old Monks for a high but getting more experimental, nuanced and flavoursome in all kinds of hard drinks. So after a revolution in craft beer, the country is now ready for vodka, gin and tequila to be re-made with different flavours. In fact, the experimental generation of millennials is pushing changes even in Tier II and Tier III cities, say experts in the trade.
Estimates by the US-based Tito’s show that in India 150 million new drinkers reach the legal drinking age every year. That works out to 40 per cent of America’s population. Cocktails are also climbing up steadily on restaurant menus. At last count, the drinks menu in India had at least 20-25 per cent cocktails. Add to that mushrooming bars and lounges.
With the mushrooming of micro-breweries in Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai, which have been around for half a decade and more, it can safely be said that the country’s love for craft beer is no longer in a nascent stage. So we have graduated to the next level, as bars and restaurants in Delhi, Mumbai and even Pune now flash signs of pouring put home-made gins. And things are further amping up as a US-based hand-made, gluten-free vodka brand, Tito’s, is also trying to make inroads into smaller cities, whose residents are now equally well-travelled and informed. Cities like lucknow, Kanpur, Guwahati, Shillong, Itanagar, Darjeeling, Siliguri, Dehradun, Mussoorie and states like Odisha, Sikkim and Mizoram, which recently shed the title of a dry state, have a robust alcohol market already. In Shillong, domestic alcohol sells more because the taxation on international brands is high. In Bengaluru, one can also have a craft whisky called the Amrut, which sells the only Indian single malt. While the company Amrut Distilleries has been around since 1948, it launched the single malt only in 2010 and has already gained fame. It sells the product in European and Pacific countries.
Sommelier Magandeep Singh and mixologist Sanchayan Jana believe that craft gin is much more popular in India. “Gin is the biggest revolution right now,” says Jana. “Around 10 years ago, whisky and vodka were the trend. Right now, cocktails are more the rage and white spirits are coming in to the picture with new flavours. Bars in Delhi, Mumbai and Pune are trying to make home-made vodka and tequila. Hyatt’s Juniper Bar, Gurugram’s Pra Pra Prank and Prankster and G.K.1’s PDA are all serving home-made gin,” he says.
“When we talk craft, for me, it falls in the beer category or some other spirits which are naturally flavoured like gin. With craft, people can play around a lot more with gin and show a lot more inventiveness,” says Singh.
The vodka company, Tito’s, which started in 1997 in Austin and still makes vodka in batches, using old-fashioned pot stills in their distillery, is trying to access the affluent and well-educated people from those regions apart from metros. In their home base, an explorer can spend a day walking around the Austin distillery much like microbrewery crawls, which are popular in India. “The millennial consumer wants to discover brands themselves and share with friends. The last thing they want is mass advertising and mass brands. These are bad words now. Earlier, people used to pick the leader of the pack and everybody tried to follow that. Now, with social media and the millennial generation, every single person is their own leader. And they create their own information and sharing. With different social media platforms, we can share our stories through those channels and we have the opportunity to be successful outside our home market,” says John McDonnell, MD, International, Tito’s Handmade.
“Earlier people would just have a vodka orange juice or a Bloody Mary. Now they want infusions of local ingredients,” says Sweta Mohanty, assistant manager, marketing of Aspri Spirits.
While the Texas company doesn’t see itself setting up a distillery in India since it would take away from authenticity, they think that soon an entrepreneur in India might open one. “I won’t be surprised if an entrepreneur in India opens a distillery. We have seen that happen in other parts of the world. In Finland, someone opened a gin craft distillery. For India, the future is craft,” says McDonnell.
Asked if the country has been able to beat the gender bias in consumption patterns, McDonnell says,“Cocktails are for everybody. There is no gender focus or bias. It’s about taste preferences. This brand is split equally among men and women across the globe.”
“The bigger cities have transitioned but tier II cities are also following the metros. The millennials are not bothered about who thinks what. As they become more independent, it’s becoming more gender neutral,” says Arun Kumar, director of Aspri Spirits. The company also tracked the destinations of travellers in the Middle East and discovered that 40 per cent of the buyers were Indians.