Desmond Nazareth set up a craft distillery when he couldn’t find tequila in India. Now, he’s managed to distil traditional mahua to international standards
In the 18 years he has spent researching and working in the alcohol space, craft distiller Desmond Nazareth has several firsts to his credit—from making home-grown agave-based spirits to manufacturing artisanal cachaça-style sugarcane spirits.
His latest, also a first, is the traditional tribal drink mahua, potstilled to international standards, which was launched in Goa in June. “Mahua must be the world’s only flower-based distilled spirit. There are liqueurs made out of sweet flowers, because you can extract the essence of the flowers, but that’s not the same as fermenting and distillation,” says Nazareth, founder and managing director of Agave India, whose portfolio also includes liqueurs and cocktail blends.
Nazareth had been working on mahua since 2013, sourcing flowers and experimenting even as he tried to acquire the licences to make and sell what was essentially a ‘country liquor’. By law, it cannot be sold outside the state it is distilled in. “It took a good four years for the state in which I had my distillery, Andhra Pradesh, to give me permission to make mahua,” says the 61-year-old former IITian who had to go back and forth with the authorities to make it a non-country spirit. “Eventually, I was able to convince the authorities there that every international spirit started as a country spirit in some country,” he says.
Nazareth is no stranger to finding solutions to problems. In fact, all his projects, he says, result from questions he asks himself. “If I can’t find an answer, then I start digging deeper and sometimes end up discovering things.”
As he did in 2000 when the software developer, partaker of alcohol and amateur cocktail maker landed from the US and found that tequila wasn’t easily available in India.
Esta historia es de la edición August 3, 2018 de Forbes India.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición August 3, 2018 de Forbes India.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Home-Cooked Meal Is Now Greatly Valued
The pandemic has also brought with it an improved focus on hygiene, use of technology in dining, rise of cloud kitchens and resurgence in popularity of Indian ingredients
Paytm 3.0 - Reaching Near Breakeven In Two Years
As of 2020, Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s super app for financial services had run up losses in thousands of crores. Now, as digital payments gets yet another boost courtesy Covid-19, he’s hopeful of reaching near breakeven in two years
THE PANDEMIC HAS CAUSED WOMEN GREATER LABOUR PAIN
Covid-19 has shown that women are more likely to face the brunt of job losses than men, and find fewer opportunities when they want to resume. That apart, several have to deal with increased hours of unpaid work at home and even domestic abuse
LEADERSHIP WILL BE ABOUT SEEING THE BIGGER PICTURE
Leaders must not only guard their teams first during a crisis, but also deal with stakeholders with respect and dignity. And apart from pursuing business goals, they should remain committed to our planet and the environment
PHILANTHROPY SHOULD BE HUMBLE, BUT NOT MODEST
Apart from building a flexible and resilient framework for the future, philanthropists, civil society and the government must work in tandem so that every rupee is absorbed on the ground
INTEGRATED HEALTH CARE, TECH WILL DISRUPT SECTOR
While clinical research will get a boost, having a skilled workforce and public spending on health care will be challenges in the near term
DIGITALISATION WILL HELP IN VALUE CREATION
As the pandemic brings technology and innovation to the core of business and daily life, the next decade will see about 150 million digital-first families in India
Industry 4.0: Climate Revolution?
Augmenting sustainability alongside digital capabilities is an economic, competitive and global opportunity for India’s businesses, but regulations need to reflect intent
EV Dream Still Miles Away
Electric vehicles have remained a buzzword in India for years. But not much has moved on ground due to high upfront costs, range anxiety and charging infrastructure
Living Waters
A virus has caused us to scramble for oxygen but our chokehold on the environment is slowly strangling the very waters that breathe life into us. The virus is a timely reminder: We are merely consumers, not producers of life’s breath on this planet
