Desi daru, Inglis name: How Madhya Pradesh's mahua is having its moment

How often have you heard lsquoIf you drink country liquor you will diersquo ldquoWell itrsquos high time this myth was put to restrdquo says Aniruddha Mookerjee over a phone call He is the advisor to the Madhya Pradesh governmentrsquos initiative to commercially distil and bottle mahua an indigenous liquor consumed in at least Indian 1314 statesldquoWe have been crying hoarse to support Made in India and this is as swadeshi as it can getrdquo says Mookerjee ldquoThe myth that anyone who consumes country liquor falls ill is baseless Millions of people in central India drink it every day It canrsquot be a bad liquor This negative colonial storytelling started 300 years ago and continues to be perpetuated even todayrdquoOut of two units set upmdashone on the GujaratMP border in a small town called Katthiwada in Alirajpur and the other at Bhaka Mal village in Dindorimdashthe first bottled batches of Mond from Alirajpur have been in the market for two months now while Mohulo from Dindori has just been releasedMookerjee who began his career as a journalist often travelled to the northeast of India This tenure along with his next stint with the Wildlife Trust of India where he pursued his passion for conservation introduced him to the interiors of the country and other countries where he began to take a keen interest in indigenous alcohols He started deciphering what these were and if there were scientific writing about their brewing process Finding none he started documenting his findings which are being turned into a book on indigenous liquors of South AsiaFor the past 10 years he has been living on a farm on the edge of Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh ldquoIf there were to be a national drink of India it would have to be mahuamdashit is distilled and consumed in over 13 statesrdquo he says In 2020 after Madhya Pradesh declared mahua as its heritage liquor he was invited to make a presentation to the government to help work on the policy and set up two units to produce mahua that matched the production standards of the alcobev industryTaking us through the chemistry of alcohol Mookerjee explains ldquoThe FSSAI gives clear guidelines about which components can be present in how much percentage Home distillers may not meet this yardstick the proportion of the ingredients may be a little more or less The government of MP was clear at the onset the liquor should fall under the heritage category and the right to distil must be given to Self Help Groups SHG of Scheduled Tribes the people who have always distilled it This is part of our history and only few states have done this The second caveat was to maintain the taste and flavours as close as possible to the original brewrdquoVasantdada Sugar Institute in Pune which performs all scientific technical and educational functions relevant to the sugar and alcohol industry was asked to develop this process Mookerjee was appointed advisor to the projectldquoWe set up two model distilleries cottagesized to make an artisanal product that was made in small batches and tightly curated and controlledrdquo says Mookerjee ldquoThe beauty of the project was that the SHGs were mandated to have 50 per cent membership of women the traditional distillers of the spirit SHG members along with select Class 12 students Science graduates and even chemical engineers were packed off to VSI for training While they knew how to distil mahua we needed them to understand the theory behind the process and how to run a professional distilleryrdquoMohulo and Mond are available in Madhya Pradesh at Rs 850 per 750 ml bottleSince mahua falls under heritage liquor status it enjoys a sevenyear tax holiday and attempts are being made to sell it in other states And since the rights are in the hands of the SHG they can also sell it abroad Compliances needed for this are being processedThe mahua flower blooms in MarchApril is harvested and dried in the sun This turns the yellowgreen colour of the flower to a deep brick red and it is then stored in homes and cold storage At happy hour it is soaked in water and allowed to ferment naturally in open air After four to five days most sugar is converted into alcohol and the resultant liquid is poured into a still pot and heatedThe vapours are condensed and collected as liquor In a distillery the process is technically refined with controlled temperature and added yeast ldquoMost times says Mookerji ldquohome brewers do not check if all the sugar has converted to alcohol so they distil a lower ABV alcohol by volume drink at 2626 per cent What we bottle is about 38 per centrdquoMond and Mohulo both sell at Rs 850 for 750 ml We ask Mookerjee how to enjoy the mahua spirit ldquoWater tonic or soda or turn it into a cocktail My personal preference is straight on ice with a wedge of Gondhoraj limerdquo he addsHow mahua got a bad reputationIt is said that up until the late 1800s indigenous families of Indian states were free to distil consume and sell mahua liquor However it suffered a heavy blow during the British Raj with mahua being deemed a dangerous intoxicant and a threat to public health and morality Colonial lawmakers created the Bombay Abkari Act of 1878 and Mhowra Act of 1892 that restricted distillation of the spirit and clamped down on the collection and storage of the mahua flowers by indigenous tribes This was a huge hit to them Fewer mahua flowers meant undercover brewing often infused with impurities added as filler resulting in poor quality of the drink This was done to further the British Rajrsquos agenda at the time To control the production of local spirits to up the revenue generated from imported alcohol from Britain and Germany to help fund military occupation