Best Of | Goa's craft liquor: 15 unique, new and limited edition spirits to bring back

Terry Sent Me gin, a craft liquor in Goa.

Nothing sounds more perfect than a trip to Goa for a touch of sea, surf and susegad this season. Maybe you’ve planned for a few days of complete rest and recuperation on a secluded south Goa beach. Maybe you’re going to commune with nature: bird-watching on mangrove islands, hiking to the many beautiful waterfalls in the Western Ghats. Or, maybe, you’re going to get the adrenaline flowing, whether from ski jets or at the Sunburn festival.

Regardless of the kind of Goa year-ender you have in mind, you’ll want to bring back souvenirs to remember the excellent, excellent times. And for things you can bring back home from Goa in 2022, we can do a lot better than T-shirts or fridge magnets. For one, Goa’s booming craft spirits industry has a lot to offer, whether it’s the 20-odd (and counting) gin brands, new experiments with rum and vodka, some of the finest whisky in the world, or a host of Goa’s heritage spirits, reinvented for the modern traveller’s palate.

While Paul John’s single malt whisky, Greater Than and Stranger & Sons gin are today internationally acknowledged as examples of outstanding Indian liquor; there’s a new distillery opening in some bucolic Goan field, and new brands arriving in stores faster than we can say “cin cin!”. Here are the best, most covetable spirits to shortlist from, for your two-litre carry-on limit: new bottles, limited editions and unique pours that you won’t get anywhere else in the world (yet).

Broken Bat

This year, the folks behind Greater Than—regarded as pioneers of the Indian craft gin movement—asked cricket fans around the country to donate their broken or chipped bats. They also sourced discarded scraps of wood from a bat-maker in Kashmir. With all this Kashmir willow at their disposal, they created casks in which to age gin—an Indian twist to the age-old tradition of maturing spirits in oak barrels. The result is Broken Bat, another solid release after the Juniper Bomb and No Sleep.

Price: Rs 1,450

Paul John Single Malt Christmas Edition

You don’t need to be an ‘anorak’ to have heard about Paul John’s legendary whiskies, such as the award-winning Mithuna and the Zodiac series. Their Christmas releases are collector’s items, and the 2022 edition features notes of prunes, dates, candied orange and cherries, along with sherry, butter and salted caramel on the nose; and chardonnay, cinnamon sugar, nutmeg, fried peaches and black pepper on the palate. A bit of fruit, a bit of spice: This is like the best bits of winter in a bottle.

Price: Rs 5,500

Earth Rum

After gin, it’s rum’s turn for reinvention. Sachin Bhambri and Vijay Khalate, founders of Surbhi Wines, chose to launch a spiced rum, instead of yet another gin—the offerings in this space are so sparse, Old Monk is casually referred to as India’s national drink. Earth rum is awash with notes of clove, cinnamon, star anise, leaving behind a trail of chocolate, pepper and vanilla. You’re not going to need coke with a peg of this sustainability-minded rum.

Price: Rs 1,350 for 750 ml

Spice Trade 

The folks behind Stranger & Sons at Third Eye Distillery worked through the pandemic, in collaboration with Australian distillery Four Pillars, to bring not one, but two cross-country gins which hit shelves this year. Spice Trade, featuring heady botanicals like cashew, coriander seeds, green cardamom, red chilli, was distilled in Australia. Save it for the summer: it goes down nicely in a G&T or a cooling cucumber concoction.

Price: Rs 2,520 for 700 ml

Trading Tides

The other product of the Third Eye-Four Pillars collab is Trading Tides, distilled in India with flavours of Oz, coming through in botanicals like river mint, lemon myrtle and river mint. Citrusy and significantly lighter on the palette than Spice Trade, this one’s also got room to play with in a negroni. Rs 2,520 for 720 ml in Goa

Malhar

This year, Paul John veered into the burgeoning gin territory with two variants, both an ode to the Indian monsoon. The Malhar Classic Dry combines 15 botanicals; including herbs, floral notes with a touch of pepper. The Malhar Citrus is a vapour-infused clear spirit with 11 botanicals, and heavy on the lime.

Price: Classic dry for Rs 3,075 for 750 ml

Satiwa

(Photo courtesy Elizabeth Smitt)

Some years ago, the world decided hemp would be the saviour crop of our generation. But this cannabis cousin in your gimlet? The folks behind Sinq Hospitality thought it could be done. With a bouquet of botanicals including juniper, rose petals, black pepper, lemongrass, fennel, star anise and cardamom, Satiwa is steeped in Indianness.

Price: Rs 1,650 for 700 ml

Short Story

In a word, Short Story is all about minimalism: From the design of the bottle to the no-nonsense spirits they carry. Another collaboration from Third Eye Distillery, this time with brand director Pankaj Balachandran (previously of the now-shuttered Tesouro bar), the Short Story range includes a smooth vodka that’s been filtered through charcoal, a blended rum and a citrus-forward London Dry gin. They’re all good, but we’d recommend the vodka, which needs nothing more than ice to shine.

Price: Rs 1,050 for 750 ml 

Cazulo 

For 40 years, Cazulo has been making and bottling feni—the traditional spirit fermented from cashew and coconut in the Konkan region. Now, feni is undergoing its own revival, with inventive infusions and pride of place on cocktail menus at Goa’s hippest bars. Cazulo’s feni offerings, a cashew and a coconut variant, are more of the traditional variety, which means they shine best in that kokum feni cocktail that you’ll find on practically every bar menu in Goa.

Price: Rs 500 onwards

Doja

Entrepreneur Jai Anand, known for putting together some of the best parties these days, decided to launch his own gin during the pandemic—and decided to make it a tribute to India and Japan. In this yuzu-forward clear gin, there are hints of cedar, sansho and hinoki, along with traditional Indian botanicals. If you’re looking for perfection, this is it.

Price: Rs 2,025 for 700 ml

Pistola Joven

Mezcal from India? Yes it exists. Pistola, a brand launched by the F&B doyen Rakshay Dhariwal (owner of Pass Code Hospitality), is a craft spirit made from the wild blue-green agave growing naturally in the Deccan plateau. Clear, smooth as butter and versatile, Pistola’s agave now comes in four expressions: the Reposado with notes of vanilla, oak, butterscotch and soft tobacco; the citrusy Joven; Rosa, aged in Ex-Cabernet Sauvignon barrels; and the micro-batch Anejo, aged for 20 months in Virgin American White Oak. Pick any to get the party started.

Price: Rs 2,695 onwards for 750 ml

Terry Sent Me

Very new on the block, this contemporary Indian gin will keep you guessing about the botanicals. Terry Sent Me is an ode to the Prohibition Era, which means that the blend of botanicals is a secret; but also, fittingly, that it is a versatile gin ready to be played with in your interpretation of gin cocktails.

Price: Rs 850 for 750 ml
Sector 

What doesn’t qualify as a botanical in your gin brew at the moment? Sector, a craft gin from the recently launched Living Root Distilling Company, features turmeric, Cochin ginger and lemon balm; with tasting notes from Italian juniper berries, oranges, cubeb and grapefruit. A trip for the senses. Rs 650 for 750 ml in Goa

Desmondji DJ Mahua

In an artisanal spin to a ‘country spirit’, Desmondji’s mahua is a fine tribute to the centuries-old sweet liquor made from mahua flowers, which has its origin in the tribes of central and East India. It’s a clear, smooth, fragrant spirit that will elevate your margarita game.

Price: Rs 750

Great Indian Gin

If you like flavoured vodka, Great Indian Gin will be right up your alley. Available in three variants—Native Dry, Shimla Green Apple and Nagpur Orange—GiG boasts nine handpicked botanicals, including juniper berries, coriander, lemon peel, cassia bark, cardamom, fennel, angelica root, liquorice and pepper. Ditch the tonic, crack some ice into your glass of GiG and you’re done.

Price: Rs 675 for 750 ml