launch by November-end in Goa.

2022 has
well and truly become the year of limited-edition gins.
While Bombay Sapphire’s Sunset boasts of botanicals like Spanish Mandarin,
Golden Turmeric and Indian Cardamom, No Sleep G&T was a collaboration by
Greater Than with Sleepy Owl Coffee, while Pumori Ascent and Nilgiris Cask
Aged gins used the barrel-ageing process to add notes from the barrels to impart
taste to the limited-edition gins. Clearly, experimentation with botanicals as well
as barrels seem to be the way limited-edition gins are wooing customers. Prices,
though, are still in the affordable category, unlike the position with rare
whiskies.
Amongst the latest releases, Bombay Sapphire Sunset Edition and Greater Than’s
Broken Bat retail for ₹2,200 and ₹1,450, respectively, in Goa.
The term limited edition comes with its pitfalls. It has been used so liberally
that
Vikram Achanta, co-founder of bar awards platform 30 Best Bars India and
co-founder of the beverage education and training organisation Tulleeho, goes
as far as to describe the concept as one big “ginnick”. “If you say limited-
edition,
you need to be true to your word. If the product is available over a couple of
years,
then the credibility gets lost for consumers,” he says. So far, there has been a
scramble for just two of the gins: Pumori Ascent, which was India’s first oak-aged
gin (470 bottles), and Amrut Nilgiris Cask Aged Gin (900 bottles in Bengaluru and
900 for the international market).
For brands, it’s about creativity and buzz. “There are two sides to having limited-
edition gins. First is that it keeps things interesting at the distillery. It’s
about
creativity and R&D, plus it’s an additional way