Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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India’s liquor industry has always had a sticky underbelly. Cheap sugarcane molasses distilled into a flavourless liquid and then spiked with artificial flavourings and colour to pass for fine whisky and aged rum. Foreign markets cottoned on long ago, and Indian brands took a beating. Now, a reckoning has arrived in India too. Earlier this month, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) banned a whole bar-full of popular rum and whisky labels after lab tests found they were using neutral alcohol and added flavour to mimic the real deal. On the list were three variants of Old Monk — The Legend, Gold Reserve and XXX Matured Rum — along with McDowell’s No 1 Rum, Bagpiper Deluxe Whisky, Old Cask Deluxe Rum and Royal Challenge Whisky.
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