4 days ago
Jamun Finds a Premium Place in India’s Beverages
Jamun is a purple Indian fruit with a sweet and sour taste.
People usually enjoy it from roadside sellers during summer and monsoon.
Now companies are using it in drinks and desserts.
Some brands have made jamun-flavoured vodka and gin.
Others are using it in syrups, mocktails and cocktails.
Bars are mixing it with ingredients such as yuzu, tonic and jeera.
Ice-cream companies are also selling jamun flavours.
Businesses say the fruit feels familiar and nostalgic while still looking exciting and premium.
Indian jamun is being used in premium vodkas, gins, cocktails, mocktails, syrups, shakes and ice creams.
Diageo India’s Smirnoff launched Minty Jamun vodka in July last year, followed by Radico Khaitan’s Magic Moments Jamun SpicyMint in September.
Alcobrew Distilleries and Smoke Lab have also introduced jamun-flavoured vodka products.
Food and beverage companies are presenting jamun as a modern interpretation of a familiar Indian flavour.
Brands including Naturals, NIC Ice Creams and Kwality Wall’s now offer jamun-based ice cream variants.
- Who
- Indian beverage, spirits and food companies, including Diageo India, Radico Khaitan, Alcobrew Distilleries, Smoke Lab and several ice-cream brands.
- What
- Jamun is being adapted into premium alcoholic drinks, non-alcoholic beverages, cocktails, syrups and ice creams.
- Where
- India, including a cocktail bar in Hyderabad.
- When
- Smirnoff launched Minty Jamun in July last year, and Magic Moments Jamun SpicyMint followed in September; other products are described as recent or currently available.
- Why
- Companies are responding to growing confidence in Indian flavours and using jamun’s tartness, familiarity and nostalgia in contemporary premium products.
Key facts
- Fruit
- Jamun is described as a sweet-and-tangy Indian fruit with a rich purple hue.
- Smirnoff launch
- Diageo India launched Minty Jamun vodka in July last year.
- Magic Moments launch
- Radico Khaitan launched Magic Moments Jamun SpicyMint in September last year.
- Other vodka launches
- Alcobrew Distilleries launched One More Next Twisty Minty Jamun, while Smoke Lab added Blue Moon Minty Jamun.
- Cocktail example
- Hyderabad bar Oxymorons serves a Jamun Yuzu Gin & Tonic made with jamun, yuzu and tonic.
- Ice-cream brands
- Naturals, NIC Ice Creams and Kwality Wall’s offer jamun-based ice creams.
Quotes
Ashutosh Rajput
COO of Alcobrew Distilleries
“The opportunity for the spirits industry is to take familiar regional ingredients and reinterpret them in contemporary formats. It is less about simply making a product ‘desi’ and more about giving Indian flavours a modern, premium context.”
financialexpress.com
“For years there was this unspoken rule that premium meant imported, that if a flavour didn’t sound European or exotic it couldn’t sit on a prestige shelf. That rule is dying.”
financialexpress.com
Sources
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