Why is the consumer appetite for homegrown gins on the rise?

From experimenting with botanicals and cocktail bars to creating limited-edition batches and bringing brand ambassadors on board, gin in India is having a moment, all over again

There’s no simple answer to why distillers in India have spoiled gin drinkers for choice. Since Greater Than first launched in New Delhi in 2017, there has been an onslaught of brands, each vying for a market that database tracker Statista pegs at US$1780 million in 2022.

Across the country, even though gin is in the midst of its moment, it has admittedly stretched on for three to four years now. On trips to Goa during the pandemic, it is expected for friends to stop by Tom’s Wine and Liquor Store in Panjim to scope out the newest gins that have hit the shelves. Some brands, such as Seqer and Matinee, are still only available in the sunshine state, while others have expanded their geographic reach–first, throughout the country, and now abroad.

The pandemic has given a fillip to distillers looking to launch gins, with brands like Doja and Terai entering the market in the last two years. Says Jai Anand, about the thought behind Doja (‘do’ for Indo and ‘ja’ for Japan), which brings together Indo-Japanese flavours, “My family lives in Japan so I wanted to work with something unique from the country.” As a result, while the list of botanicals in a bottle of Doja includes peppermint and cardamom from India, there’s also yuzu peel, sansho pepper and hinoki chips from Japan.

Fostering a gin-drinking culture

If you speak to Anand Virmani, co-founder of Nao Spirits & Beverages–the maker of craft ginsGreater Than and Hapusa–he’ll tell you that product launches are the first step towards building a gin-drinking culture in the country. Jai Anand, founder of Mumbai-based music curator agency Milkman, launched the small-batch Doja Gin during the pandemic in 2020. He explains that hosting music events made him more cognisant of the desire to serve better gin. Others will cite the fact that gin doesn’t require years of aging, unlike most other hard liquor, thereby tying up start-up capital for the least amount of time.

Botanicals aplenty

The pandemic has given a fillip to distillers looking to launch gins, with brands like Doja and Terai entering the market in the last two years. Says Jai Anand, about the thought behind Doja (‘do’ for Indo and ‘ja’ for Japan), which brings together Indo-Japanese flavours, “My family lives in Japan so I wanted to work with something unique from the country.” As a result, while the list of botanicals in a bottle of Doja includes peppermint and cardamom from India, there’s also yuzu peel, sansho pepper and hinoki chips from Japan.

Indian distillers are using botanicals to set themselves apart in a market where, Virmani says, “India needed gins,” given that craft distillers abroad are doing the work of introducing local markets to homegrown, small-scale distilled gin.. In India, gins such as Greater Than, Pumori, Tamras, Tickle, Samsara and Stranger & Sons, to name a few, have multiplied, each with their own mix of botanicals, sourced from both India and abroad. Nikhil Varma, gin distiller at Amrut shares that for their Nilgiris gin, the average cost of the botanicals for one batch of gin “could vary from 5-12 per cent on the MRP, depending on how many are imported.” Most distilleries import their juniper, preferring Macedonian juniper to Indian (Hapusa is an exception). They also include a host of familiar flavours–such as almond and basil in Terai, and local ones like vetiver and lemongrass in Jaisalmer Gin.

The growth of premium and limited-edition batches

According to an IWSR Drinks Market Analysis, India’s overall gin volumes dropped to over 50 per cent in 2020. With the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns first causing the closure of restaurants, bars and hotels–a sector known as on-trade–and alcohol shops staying open only for delivery, months into the pandemic, it’s not surprising that alcohol sales saw a steep drop across the board.

A bright spot, however, was the growth of the premium gin category, increasing by 16.9 per cent during the same time. The IWSR report considers gins priced over ₹3,000 to be premium gins. High-end gins, then, are growing, and while ‘high-end’ in the past has meant imported brands such as Tanqueray, Roku and Monkey 47 from liquor majors like Diageo, Beam Suntory and Pernod Ricard, it now also includes bottles of Doja, Hapusa and Pumori–all homegrown brands.

The pandemic has seen a slew of limited-edition launches as well. Says Virmani, “The limited editions are obviously more about building the halo around the brand. One, it’s a little bit selfish, I guess, because it lets us experiment, so it keeps us on our toes. It also keeps things interesting for us and for the distillers. What we’ve seen not just with us but around the world, is that a limited-edition [batch] surprisingly helps bring back focus to the core brand.” Greater Than has had two limitededition releases–Juniper Bomb and No Sleep–the latter a collaboration with Sleepy Owl Coffee. Stranger & Sons’ limited-edition batch is Perry Road Peru, a guava-flavoured gin, the production of which was expanded last year. In Goa, which makes up 77 per cent of their gin market, Pumori has recently released Ascent, a cask-aged gin limited to only 470 bottles. Aman Thadani, founder of Fullarton Distilleries explains why a regional level launch makes sense. He explains, “For us, our strongest market has been Goa. We’re very fortunate to have it as our home turf because it’s very tourist-driven.”

New offerings

The lockdown has also given a boost to international expansion, with a number of brands expanding abroad. Rahul Mehra, co-founder of Third Eye Distillery, which produces Stranger & Sons, says, “We wanted to put Indian gin and homegrown spirits on the map of the global bar scene.” Having said that, the bulk of their revenue, about 80 per cent, still comes from India.

If the last two years have been replete with new gin brands being launched, it has also driven market deals, with Diageo announcing that it had paid ₹31.5 crore for a 22 per cent minority stake in Nao Spirits in March this year. Meanwhile, Third Eye Distillery has acquired a majority stake in Countertop India—a bar consultancy and spirit brand advisory—indicating that the gin revolution is linked to both the growth of cocktail bars and a wider array of spirits entering the market.

Bringing brand ambassadors on board

Brand ambassadors, who are paid anywhere between ₹60,000-1,00,000 per month, are sometimes used to differentiate between brands in an increasingly crowded market. While they held events on Zoom and Instagram during the pandemic to build both awareness and a community, with the reopening of on-trade, they now serve as a conduit between the brand and bartenders, training them in making signature cocktails and understanding their drink’s finer nuances.

The co-founder of Tamras–the newest gin to enter the market in Mumbai–Khalil Bachooali, is working with Raul Raghav as their Chief Adventurist, or an all-encompassing brand ambassador. Raghav, the former Beverage Director at Hunger Inc, has been tasked with “spending time with us while we distill, so that there is a deeper understanding of what botanicals are bringing to the flavour profile. We are also working with Raghav in terms of developing, tweaking and testing our future spirits.”

This probably means that there’s more to come, with Bachooali hinting, “In 2022, we are going to be expanding the gin category.” Given that the gin market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.08 per cent between 2022 and 2025, according to Statista, it’s no wonder that across the board, founders are optimistic about the coming years.

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