Maharaja Drinks launches Indian Heritage Spirits collection
Maharaja Drinks, the UK-based retailer of exclusively Indian wines, spirits and beers, has announced the launch of its new Indian Heritage Spirits category featuring three Feni expressions and a Mahua spirit. Amelie Maurice-Jones finds out more.
Both Feni and Mahua are indigenous Indian spirits with centuries of distilling heritage in the country. Feni, produced in Goa, comes in two expressions: cashew Feni comes from cashew apple, rather than the nut, with felled fruit crushed in basins, before the juice is fermented with wild yeast.
Meanwhile, Mahua is the only spirit in the world made from flowers. References to Mahua span millennials, with the liquor first mentioned in Ayurvedic scripture. But, under British colonial rule, the ancient spirit was banned in the 19th century, pushing production underground. In more recent times, India’s complex regulatory system, with alcohol laws decided state-by-state, have made it hard for liquor makers to produce and distribute products in the domestic market.
But now, India’s native liquor is undergoing a renaissance.
“Most heritage spirits, by definition, are centuries old, bootlegged products. But it’s only in the last few years that the major distillers have set about making them to an international standard approved by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI),” Maharaja Drinks founder Ipe Jacobs tells the drinks business.
And he believes Maharaja Drinks is “first to the party” in bringing the liquor to a global stage. The four new products added to its portfolio of premium Indian drinks include: Cashew Feni and Coconut Feni from Goenchi Feni, Ouro, a spiced Feni from Goa Heritage Distillery, and Desmondji Mahua Spirit from DesmondJi.
‘First to the party’
Ipe describes how the team travelled India, talking to a diverse range of producers, to discover those making spirits to “international standards and preserving the culture as best as they can”.
The drinks retailer only picks products that align with its cultural philosophy. What is this? Drinks must be “made in India,” with their makers “deeply connected to the land and what grows on it, with an eco-awareness,” Ipe sums up.
On the way up
Goenchi Feni is an exemplar of this. The sustainable, family-run brand from Goa was founded by siblings Yash and Tulika Sawardekar. Their Coconut Feni and Cashew Feni are double-distilled in small batches using 100% copper pot stills, following a closely-guarded family recipe that uses either cashew apple or coconut sap.
“Feni carries a long and proud heritage from Goa, passed down through generations as a true expression of our land and culture,” said Yash. “Despite this richness, it has often been overlooked on the global stage. By opening international markets like the UK, we aim to change that and reintroduce Feni as a spirit worthy of recognition.”
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Then, there’s DesmondJi, the eponymous distillery of Desmond Nazareth, and Andhra Pradesh’s only agave distillery. Nazareth called Mahua “a national treasure of India that has been hidden in plain sight”. For hundreds of years, tens of millions of indigenous Indians in the Central Indian forest belt have made their own versions of the spirit.
“The movement to free Mahua from its chains has begun and I hope Mahua will be anointed as the national heritage spirit of India,” he added.
Winning over the Indian diaspora
Last but not least, there’s Goa Heritage Distillery, Ashok Malkarnekar’s third-gen, family business located on a farm in Goa, rich with ginger, turmeric, tulsi, cardamon, cashew and coconut trees. Its Ouro is made with sun-ripened cashew fruits, with batches hand distilled in copper pot stills and matured for at least six months before bottling.
Malkarnekar said: “The UK market has a significant Indian diaspora which already has a liking for Cashew Feni. We feel Maharaja Drinks with their focused approach are an ideal partner to make our Feni available to the Indian diaspora in the UK as well as to introduce it to new audiences.”
This is a sentiment echoed by Ipe’s son, Adam, who co-founded the company in 2023 with his father. Speaking to db, he predicts the drinks will resonate with the “prominent” Indian diaspora in the UK. Across the market, he’s seeing people keen to experiment more in what they drink, with the younger generations especially “more interested in quality over quantity,” which he hopes will benefit the premium brands.
And it also underscores the vision of the company’s recently-appointed CEO, Annabel Jamieson, who in January told db she was “extremely optimistic about 2026” thanks to a “growing appetite for distinctive, authentic Indian drinks”.
Time to shine
Adam hopes India will follow in Japan’s footsteps of taking the world by storm with its spirits. “India is primed across all drinks categories to make that same impact,” he made clear.
The new chapter for Maharaja Drinks correlates with the expansion of its Exotica range – with two expressions of India’s first homegrown vermouth, Davana Vermouth, joining the portfolio, as well as Quro, India’s first homegrown liqueur made from 36 indigenous ingredients.
“We don’t just want to sell drinks, it’s not about making money,” added Ipe. “We are all pensioned off happily in our dotage… but we want to do what we think is the right thing and showcase Indian drinks.”
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