Moonshine Meadery offers flavourable alternative to bitter alcoholic beverages

The lack of flavourful alcohol in the country motivated Rohan Rehani and Nitin Vishwas, Co-founders of Moonshine Meadery to build Asia's first meadery in India - Moonshine Meadery. Although Moonshine's humble beginnings can be traced back to a garage project in 2016, today, the meadery has grown sufficiently enough for Ronin Wines, the makers of India's first meads, Moonshine recently raised$2 million funds to further boost its growth trajectory in the country and beyond.

In an interview with Bizz Buzz, Rohan Rehani and Nitin Vishwas, say "Post some research we realized that meads as a category did not existed in India, and that meads fit perfectly into the white space that exists between flavourful, non-alcoholic beverages like coke and alcoholic bitter beverages like commercial beers. That is when the thought of starting an actual business occurred to us".

How has the company evolved over the years?

Moonshine Meadery started off as a passion project in Rohan's grandmother's kitchen. After several trials and using different techniques, Rohan and Nitin asked a few close friends and family to try the products. Soon, they realized that there's an audience who were looking for a more flavourful choice of alcohol than beer.

Post some research, they realized that meads as a category did not exist in India, and that meads fit perfectly into the white space that exists between flavourful, non-alcoholic beverages like coke and alcoholic bitter beverages like commercial beers.

That is when the thought of starting an actual business occurred to them. At that point of time, the Indian market was not accustomed to consuming flavour-focused products. However, over the years, the customer feedback has been essential for the growth of the brand, right from the labelling to the flavour of the product.Moonshine as a brand also invites different artists to design the brand logo for their new products. The new customer acquisition has grown considerably as consumers from across the country are requesting for Moonshine to be made available in their city.

What has been your year-on-year growth?

Moonshine Meadery's parent company has averaged a 50-100 per cent year-on-year growth barring the years of peak Covid-19.

Can you throw light on your portfolio of brands and their various price points?

The Moonshine portfolio has two brands - Moonshine Meadery and Moonshine Honey Project. Under Moonshine Meadery, traditional mead, apple cyder and coffee mead are the three flagship meads available throughout the year. They also create small batches of innovative meads under their MeadLAB collection which has seasonal meads like guava chilli, grilled pineapple, and salted kokum mead. Interestingly, these meads include allnatural ingredients and spices.

In quest of pure and fine quality honey for its meads, the brand launched 'The Moonshine Honey Project' which uses a unique 'hive to table' approach. They have 300 odd bee boxes under this project and only work with reputable beekeepers who travel and work with farmers across India and help educate and understand what it takes to have a thriving bee population.

Their assorted three pack which contains Sidr, acacia andmustard honey makes for a perfect gift. The multifloral honey which is prominently used in making the meads is also available for purchase on their website.

What made you consider India to be a good market for products?

The Indian audience is ready for flavourful beverages - whether they're craft beer, flavourful gins or meads. The consumer today is well-travelled and knows exactly what he/she wants in terms of taste from his/her beverage. However, the founder does believe that meads have a more universal appeal as the mild sweetness of meads is something which is very in line with what India as a nation is used to drinking.

You have been able to secure funding, what was the key consideration for getting the funding?

There are usually three key considerations for securing any kind of funding: sound unit economics, a product with a good product-market fit and a capable leadership team. Furthermore, the forward-thinking, focused founder-team brings along fresh perspectives and passionate ambition, that makes them a powerful driving force.

What are the health benefits of your alcoholic beverage?

Mead is the oldest form of alcoholic beverage. Made by fermenting ethically-sourced, pure honey with various fruits and spices, Moonshine's meads make for a 100 per cent natural, flavourful beverage. It is gluten-free and an alcoholic category in its own right, with an average mead having the added goodness of honey and fewer calories than a typical Witbier.

While the brand legally cannot make claims on health benefits about meads, the truth is that each bottle of Moonshine Mead starts off as 10 teaspoons of honey diluted in water, nine of which ferment into alcohol and one remains behind for the sweetness. This implies that all that goodness of honey is still there in a bottle. The company does not alter the honey in any way, allowing its goodness to translate into the mead as well. Additionally, meads are gluten-free. Thus, unlike beers, which cause bloating after only one pint, meads do not.

Do you plan to market it as a premium beverage or look at huge volumes to make it a viable business?

Every brand has a certain volume and a certain amount of premiumness attached to it. While, seemingly, the norm in most industries has been that the two qualities are inversely related, there is no reason to believe that at Moonshine.As Moonshine is a mass premium brand, there will always be a certain volume that needs to be achieved from a business standpoint, but at no instance will the volumes dictate the quality of meads being made.

Although the name does not suggest a premium brand what promotions do you plan to create a premium image?

Moonshine is the term used to refer to illicit alcohol made during the prohibition era in America. Very few people in India know about this. The name is easily recognisable, can be remembered and hence, it stuck.Moonshine has always projected itself as a mass premium brand, a better, tastier alternative to the Kingfisher Ultras and Biras of the world. Over the last couple of months, they have been doing events with the brands in the aforementioned category to further drive their point. Customers can try their meads and make out the difference for themselves. Social media play a very important role in creating a brand image. Moonshine has a very active Instagram page (along with other socials), the use of 'drink better, not bitter,' coupled with their innovative labels have contributed a lot to the brands image.

Moonshine's labels are younger, more vibrant and every label is different from the other, barring one commonality, the white center. Every label is designed by a different artist in India and every small batch (MeadLAB) is inspired by either nostalgia or something grown locally in India. This constant innovation has never been done in the Indian alcobev space and has become their calling card.