Rajasthan’s liquid heritage for royal high

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan government has once again started production of heritage liquor drawing on the recipes preserved by the descendants of erstwhile royals of the state.
Ganganagar Sugar Mills, a state government undertaking, has already introduced Kesar Kasturi and Chandr Hass, while Jagmohan and Saunf will be available in markets in the next couple of months.
“Heritage is a key character of the state which was also recognized by UNESCO recently by declaring Jaipur’s Walled City a World Heritage Site. Our cultural heritage is as strong as the built one. When tourists come, they should be exposed to both aspects. That’s how experiential tourism could be promoted. Promoting heritage liquor is part of that strategy,” said Prithvi Raj, revenue secretary, and also the managing director of Rajasthan State Ganganagar Sugar Mills (RSGSM).
The heritage liquor is made of spices, herbs and roots with alcohol content in varying degrees. For example Chandr Hass, a brew of ex-royals of Kanota, uses 78 varieties of herbs and spices. Similarly, Kesar Kasturi is made of 10-12 herbs. These are produced at RSGSM’s Jhotwara located Royal Heritage Liquor Distillery. And the prices are also not too high.
“We have already made 600 cases of Chandr Hass (each case contains 12 bottles having 750ml) which are available in the market and a similar quantity is under process. Over 10,000 cases of Kesar Kasturi have been brewed. While Chandr Hass comes at a price of Rs 1,350 per 750ml bottle, the same for Kesar Kasturi is Rs 450,” said Kesar Meena, general manager of RSGSM.
Meena said that while Saunf will be rolled out in two weeks, Jagmohan, the premier heritage liquor that costs around Rs 2,000, will be produced within two months. Saunf is priced at Rs 900 per bottle.
After getting recipe rights from Raj Gharanas, RSGSM first experimented with the heritage liquor in 2008. It was Gaj Singh of Jodhpur who initially supported and promoted the idea heritage liquor. He shared the family recipes of Chandr Hass and Kesar Kasturi with RSGSM.
Anil Kumar Singh, who retired from RSGSM as deputy general manager and now works as a consultant because of his involvement with the heritage liquor project since the beginning, said that besides the alcohol content, the heritage liquor has lot of health benefits.
“In earlier times, the royals or the elite of the society used ayurvedic ingredients to remain healthy and add vigour to their physique. But the taste was not always pleasant. So, they devised a mechanism where their social drink could have the healthy ingredients. That’s how many royal gharanas of the state had different brews that we call heritage liquor today,” said Singh, who has also written a book on heritage liquor.
Singh said the process of fermentation and distillation of the heritage liquors has also been kept similar to the process adopted by the then royals. The spices, dairy products, saffron, sugar and herbs are used as essential ingredients. Super-fine extra neutral alcohol is used for soaking spices in the copper utensils, he said.
Earlier, the bottles were made of ceramic which were costlier, but this time RSGM has used glass. On discontinuing brands after 2008, Meena said the volume was more than the demand. But this time, he said, they will produce keeping in mind the demand.