Discovering the flavours of mahura spirit amid its revival in India

A bottled cocktail of mahura also called mahua mingled in flavours of peach and coconut milk in one hand we place the other on the bark of a fullblossomed Madhuca Longifolia mahura tree known to be the wishing tree bestowing good health abundance and prosperity We take a sip and make a wish as guided by the team from South Seas Distillery who launched Six Brothers Mahura last yearWe look up into the green branches the sun shining through the leaves Clusters of mahura buds droop down Most had fallen to the ground the night before and had been collected in baskets Their floral fragrance hangs in the airWersquore at the mahura tree forest in Dahanu close to where the presentday distillery is nestled Today mahura is consumed in Maharashtra Gujarat Madhya Pradesh Uttar Pradesh Chhattisgarh and Odisha and it is the only spirit distilled from a flowerWe nip the top part of the fresh flowers and bite into it It has the texture of grape but the sweet comfort of a floral grassy flavour The dried red flowers have fermented and sweetened further to give an apricot and datelike tasteSix Brothers Mahura gets its name from the six founding brothersmdashKhurshedji Faramroze Rustomji Kuvarji Nanabhoy and Jehangirji In 1922 the Maharaja of Jawhar and the Maharaja of Akkalkot invited them to set up distilleries in their princely states Production stopped during colonial rule and restarted in Dahanu in the 1970sChef Mukhtar Qureshi of Waarsa at NCPA has planned a fourcourse Awadhi lunch Each course is paired with a mahura drink We soak in the summer vibe and pick on starters being passed around before we settle under the shade of a mango tree where a modern rustic setting has been arrangedDried mahura flowers take on a rich apricotanddatelike sweetnessA cocktail of mahura and passion fruit makes for a perfect summer pick while another with jamun balances the astringent tartness We bite into ker sangri ki galouti juicy ananas ka tikka Hyderabadi prawns and Nizami gosht tikka Chef Qureshi planned well and our first course was a sabz santra ka shorba a desi chilled gazpacho to beat the heat In the second course a mahura shikanji complements a kache kele ki kofta curry served with a decadent Kabul ki dal and freshly baked bakumas breadA jackfruit kathal biryani fragrant and earthy with the addition of gucchi is washed down with KoMa Prinkesh Singh bar manager at Waarsa explains that the drink has a kokum reduction and blackberry syrup as a sweetener The mahura comes forward in a bold punchCopper pot stills at the South Seas distillery DahanuWe end the meal with a neat tasting of chilled mahura which has a smooth floral herby and spicy finish of peppers but doesnrsquot leave a burn Chef Qureshi brings out the dessert a rassawal muzzafar and angoori rabdi to balance the shot ldquoThis is a seasonal fruit dessert of the royal gharanas made using Gobindo rice and jaggeryrdquo tells usScotch whiskey is local to Scotland and Ireland tequila is local to Olmec tribes in Mexico Rupi Chinoy Director of South Seas Distilleries tells us in an interview later that it is time we GI tag it for the country ldquoIf you look at any origin of any spirit in the world it all began as a community drink Production of all spirits stopped during the prohibition era Colonial rulers termed any native Indian spirit as lsquocountry liquorrsquordquo Chinoy explainsAt South Seas Distilleries the mahura goes through the same process of fermentation of the flowers and then double distillation in copper pot stills just as luxury Indian single malts ldquoThe process is similar to the production of a single malt except that the raw material here is the dried mahura flowers Once the flowers are collected the flowers are dried and then soaked in warm water and left to fermentrdquo says Chinoy The flowers change colour in each stage the dried form taking a deep red hue The spirit is double distilled in copper pots and then passed through platinum filtration to give it a crisper finishAfter the first distillation the clean spirit called hearts is collected in a vessel The heads or residue as known in whisky parlance is discarded In the second distillation the tails or remaining residue is also discarded ldquoCompared to whisky which takes 25 days distilling mahura takes up to 43 days Traditionally mahura is made in homes using distilled pots over embers ldquoAnything you distil at home will be very different from what you distil commercially Home brews would be milky and cuts are not controlledrdquo says ChinoyatOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params