The drink of India’s Indigenous people gets a modern twist

Aniruddha Mookerjee lives on the edge of a tiger reserve in central India surrounded by mahua trees. 

In late March, when the tree’s flowers are in bloom, the whole countryside is awash in a heady fragrance, he said. As the flowers begin falling to the ground, people flock to collect them. 

“Children, women, men, everybody — life comes to a standstill,” Mookerjee described. He’s an expert on Indigenous alcohol.

The mahua tree holds a revered place in India’s tribal cultures and is sometimes called the “tree of life.” It’s spiritually and economically important as it provides tribal families with food and livelihood — including a spirit made from the blossoms of the mahua tree, which is native to the Indian subcontinent.

Mahua spirit, made by fermenting the dried mahua blossoms, has been an integral part of tribal rituals for millennia. However, in the mainstream, the mahua drink has long been relegated to the sidelines, dismissed as cheap, low-quality booze. But today, Indian distillers are rediscovering the ancient drink and giving it a modern twist.

They hope to see mahua become India’s national drink and represent their country on the global stage, in the way tequila represents Mexico or whisky represents Scotland. But some are concerned that the communities who have nurtured mahua for generations are being excluded from its commercialization.

From prohibition to premium

In the late 1800s, the British colonial government banned mahua to raise revenue from imported alcohol. Tribal families were prohibited from making mahua or storing it in their homes. Even after India became independent in 1947, the restrictions persisted, and mahua came to be seen as an inferior liquor. 

A clear liquid, mahua is said to have strong floral notes and reminds some people of rice spirits. Mookerjee said that he likes it best with soda and a slice of Gondhoraj lemon, a variety from Bengal.

“It’s unique, it’s incomparable,” said Susan Dias, a chartered accountant-turned-entrepreneur and founder of Native Brews. “My favorite pairing is straight mahua spirit on ice with a piece of pink guava with a bit of salt and chili powder on it.”

When Dias began looking into mahua about a decade ago, she said, she was quickly convinced it had potential. 

“When you research Indigenous alco-beverages, mahua comes up as one and it was the only one that was a spirit. The rest are all beers or wines,” said Dias, adding that mahua also stands out as the only spirit in the world made from flowers.

And yet, at the time, no one was making mahua commercially. Dias wondered if it was not scalable. To find out, she collaborated with researchers at Vasantdada Sugar Institute in Pune, India, to set up a pilot mahua distillation facility. The results were encouraging. 

“It was a perfectly viable raw material from which a perfectly viable spirit could be distilled,” she said.

The problem, it turns out, was India’s messy regulatory system. Excise rules governing the sale of liquor vary by state in India, and mahua comes under “country liquor,” a category reserved for traditional Indian alcohol as opposed to whisky or rum. Country liquor from one state cannot be legally sold in another. Many states also don’t allow the manufacture of mahua. 

“From a commercial perspective, while I had a really good idea, I couldn’t pitch it to any investors because there were roadblocks everywhere,” Dias said. “How do you sell a product that’s illegal to make?”

But then, an Indian distiller named Desmond Nazareth found a workaround. He convinced authorities in the state of Goa to categorize mahua as “Indian-made liquor” rather than country liquor, launching India’s first commercial mahua spirit in 2018.

Today, mahua has been reimagined as a premium offering, with mixologists crafting cocktails that elevate its floral essence. Mahua-flavored gin and aged mahua spirits have hit the market. Several Indian states have liberalized rules around mahua or are looking to do so. The state of Madhya Pradesh, where Mookerjee lives and serves as an adviser to the government on Indigenous alcohol, declared mahua a “heritage liquor.”

“Philosophically, what Madhya Pradesh has done is important because it has righted a historical wrong,” Mookerjee said. “It has given the communities, which were always pilloried for this, a certain status, a certain respectability.”

Who benefits from mahua’s revival?

Tribal communities in India have been historically marginalized. To make sure that their products don’t come off as gimmicky, brands using mahua should think about how they can give credit where it’s due, said Dias, who now works as a mahua consultant.

“How do you enable or create a system that is equitable where you’re not doing something that others or you may yourself feel is cultural appropriation?” Dias said. 

When tribal communities hear about their traditional spirit being sold in branded bottles in big cities, they feel happy, said Abhijit Dey, a Ph.D. scholar who studies the relationship between India’s Indigenous people and mahua. But Dey said that that feeling of validation is “unfortunate because that validation again reestablishes that they are at the periphery, we are at the center, we are the authority to validate them.”

Dey said that now, tribal communities are asking whether the police will stop bothering them. Authorities often harass tribal people for making or possessing mahua. Even as mahua becomes mainstream, the traditional way of making it is still illegal, and the people it comes from may get left behind in its commercialization. 

In this regard, Madhya Pradesh’s efforts are noteworthy. In addition to creating a heritage liquor category, the state has set up two distilleries that are run by tribal self-help groups.

But more needs to be done. Dey said that tribal communities ought to benefit from mahua’s revival, starting with the flower collectors. 

“Whoever is producing mahua liquor and selling it in the market at a good price, how [are they] procuring it?” Dey asked. “Is there any mechanism that assures that the collectors are going to get a fair price?” 

He also believes that mahua should get recognition beyond liquor. Dried mahua flowers can be incorporated into flatbreads and traditional Indian sweets, and its seeds can be pressed to make oil. 

Tribal activist Siddheshwar Sardar said that he would like to see snacks and sweets made of mahua common across India.

The flower itself is very nutritious, Dias said, comparing it to raisins and cranberries.

“We don’t just advocate the use of mahua for liquor,” said Dias, who has shifted her focus to the food side of mahua in recent years. “Make jams, jellies, honey, dry it and sell it as is, as a food supplement, but use it.”