Why Mumbai bars got creative this election season

Every year, liquor brands have to register their labels with the excise department – a process that takes anywhere between a few days to a few weeks to complete. Most bars can anticipate demand for spirits used in their cocktails and can stock up as needed. At times, alcohol vendors tip off bars about upcoming shortages and advise them to buy more quantities of their must-have spirits.

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In spite of all this, when spirit shortage hits the bar as it did this year as label registrations took longer to get approved because of elections, bartenders got creative and came up with substitutes.

They created recipes with vermouths and other ingredients that are still unavailable on shelves. Prantik Haldar, Beverage Innovations Head at The Bombay Canteen says that despite anticipating the problem of low or no stocks, the absence of dry vermouth led the team to make their own version of the liqueur. The team made a substitute by mixing sherry, Chardonnay and Bianco (another type of vermouth); but Haldar is quick to acknowledge that botanicals in Italy and India are different and the subtleness of the spirit can get lost with substitutes.

“On the other hand, if a customer requests a drink from my cocktail menu and I can’t serve it, it’s not a great experience. Sometimes, we make substitutes that are far more costly than the spirit itself. For example, we made a homemade apricot brandy with good quality Turkish apricots that cost us more than the actual spirit. A bottle of apricot brandy costs between ₹1500 – ₹2000, and a kilo of Turkish apricots costs that much. Indian bartenders have learnt to do jugaad (make do) when the need arises."

Global events often impact supply: from lockdown-related supply chain issues that led to the non-availability of bitters such as Angostura to a global shortage of grapefruit used in Paloma cocktails, attributed to Californian wildfires last year. Bartenders in the city, though, have long been used to facing shortages of essential ingredients and spirits and have their own methods of dealing with these disruptions, such as clever inventory management and making limited portions of cocktails with scare ingredients and promoting other cocktails. They have also been striking long-term deals with vendors to create a healthy supply chain for their spirits instead of being caught unawares.

The current election season threw some importers’ marketing plans out of the window. Anmol Chandhok, Vice President, Chenab Impex that imports Italian liqueurs from Luxardo, best known for their Maraschino cherries used in Manhattan-style cocktails and other spirits, says that the team spent a considerable amount of money at the start of the year to promote Limoncello. “Limoncello Spritz has been trending everywhere and we were hoping to create some impact this summer but the election cycle threw things off for us," he says.

Industry observers say that retailers keep only enough stock as they can predict demand during elections to avoid coming under the excise department’s eye for any reason, including sudden increase in sales that could lead to an enquiry. During this period, the labelling process for spirits also slows down, leading to files piling up for clearance, which ultimately hits supply.

Gautam Mansinghani, General Manager Operations and Development, Perch Mumbai, says the bar had to find creative solutions for some spirits such as sweet vermouth and limoncello, but the situation seems to be easing now and availability will soon improve to include most spirits. He points out, “It’s just a matter of approving pending files."

Priyanko Sarkar is a Mumbai-based writer covering the F&B industry.

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