Key Points
I remember when I qualified as a sommelier (Indias first and summa cum laude, no less) it was all about wines under the ferment section..
If we started tracing how the word which originally referred simply to water from the Selterser springs and wells and was a synonym for plain soda at one point, eventually ended up referring to flavoured alcoholic sweetened fizzy drinks, this space wouldnt be enough..
For example, the peach version is balanced with grippy black tea, the blueberry with some herbaceous rosemary tinges and the strong seltzer with pineapple is balanced with Okinawa black sugar from Japan (which, to our Indian palate, would come across as a cross between jaggery and caramelised sugar)..
I think we have been through two cycles of locally-produced alcoholsfirst we made sub-standard stuff with drab labels (for example, almost any spirit which was launched more than two decades ago and still sell in bulk but you wouldnt wish it on an enemy), then came the glorious last few years when forms evolved and product design took centre-stage, not just superficially but also with regards to stuff within..
These are the premium brands which have won much international acclaimStranger & Sons and Terai gins, Paul John and Amrut single malts, Camikara rum, and few others..
