Akansha Pandey (cbedit@imaws.org)
Mead is the oldest alcoholic beverage known to mankind. Launched in India in 2018, Mooshine’s Mead is currently available in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Assam, Rajasthan, Goa, Himachal Pradesh and Silvassa. The product is working well and is being readily accepted in the market. Despite the pandemic, Moonshine Meadery has grown year on year, especially through word of mouth. In the coming nine to twelve months, the alcobev brand is slated to expand its wings in the potential markets of Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, Chandigarh, Kolkata and Hyderabad, said Rohan Rehani, Co-Founder, Moonshine Meadery.
Post the brand’s stint on the TV show Shark Tank India, the company has also received a few export inquiries and the Founder Duo of Moonshine Meadery – Rohan Rehani and Nitin Vishwas are in talks to go international. The brand is also scouting for like-minded investors and looking at raising funding right now to build extensive brand awareness through events, strengthen the distribution model further and get people to try their unique product.
While its spectrum of flagship meads – Apple Cyder Mead, Traditional Mead and Coffee Mead are available around the year, Moonshine also offers seasonal meads known as the MeadLABs. These include Guava Chilli Mead, Chocolate Orange Mead, and Bourbon Oaked Apple Mead, amongst many other meads. The team has experimented with about 14 flavours until now. Four to five styles are available at any time depending on the seasonality of the fruits being used. Two new offerings – Salted Kokum Mead and Hopped Mead (mild sweetness from the multi-floral honey followed by fruitiness and a lingering bitterness from the Hops) are about to debut by the end of April 2022.
The brand aims to grow five times year on year. “We believe in steady and sustainable long term growth. The first quarter of 2022 went well with 4,000 cases (one case contains 24 bottles) being sold every month. We don’t see other Meaderies as competition, instead, we feel the category needs to grow for all similar businesses to flourish. However, the segment that we are chasing are people who are drinking Beer as they have nothing else to drink. Bitter alcohol sells because maybe people don’t have any other option. Our marketing campaign has the tagline ‘Drink better, not bitter’,” exclaimed Rehani.
Moonshine’s target audience ranges from 21 to 35-year-old people or rather anyone who likes flavourful beverages. They have seen women from all age groups who don’t drink beer, don’t like cocktails, don’t necessarily enjoy wines, loving the Mead because the way Moonshine meads are carbonated at 6.5 per cent, it is very suitable for the Indian climate. Rehani claims that Moonshine’s meads are refreshing and gluten-free – it doesn’t leave the consumer bloated.
Conducted by the Founders of Moonshine, Meadery Tours have limited seats for an exclusive tour and sit down tasting session at their Pirangut meadery in Pune every Sunday. A guided tasting session of the most exquisite honey from around the country is followed by the experiential journey of Moonshine’s flagship and experimental meads. “It is a great opportunity to talk to end consumers and understand their choices. The visitors get to taste six different types of honey and five to six varieties of Mead flavours,” he adds.
Mead is sourced from honey and contains 6.5 per cent alcohol. Both wine and beer require agriculture, whereas Mead doesn’t. Moonshine uses real 100 per cent pure honey to brew Mead which is sourced from all over the country, predominantly Uttarakhand and from their own apiary too. The flavours are added to the meads with the real fruits and spices and not the concentrate, making them unique. Meads age well and get better with time. However, the brand puts a label of best before 18 months on the bottle.
It all started when back in 2014, onboard a flight Vishwas read about Meads and together with Rehani thought of making it abroad to test the waters. With every batch, the Mead turned out better and tastier. Their friends loved the initial trials and went on asking for more. The demand increased manifold and seeing the response, the next year – in 2015, the two decided to incorporate the company and take the idea forward. The next two years went by in planning the business and getting a category created for mead under the Excise laws. The product was officially launched in bottles in 2018.
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