The BIS Miracle Of Labels

Global drink

• Whisky: Made enti­rely from grains or malted grains or a mix of the two, and aged for at least three years in white oak casks. Malt dried in peat fire to give a distinct smoky flavour. The full load of woody flavour comes from ageing.

• Rum: Linked to the rise of sugar cultivation during colonial times, molasses were distilled and aged in casks for a rich variety of spirits

• Brandy: From wine or fermented grapes; spirit originally distilled from pomace, a leftover of wine breweries, consisting of grape stalks

• Gin: At its very basic, gin is a grain spirit flavoured with botanicals, mainly juniper.  To be called gin, a spirit must have a predominant flavour of juniper.

• Vodka: Russian for ‘a little water’, it’s a spirit made from potatoes, any vegetable source and sugarcane or a mix of these

Desi Tweak (BIS Standards)

• Whisky: Any distillate made from any agricultural source. Needn’t be aged. What it really is: Made from molasses; colour and flavour added without ageing

• Rum: An alcoho­lic distillate from fermented sugar­cane molasses or any carbohydrate source. It derives its colour from additives as it isn’t aged.

• Gin: Distilled alcoholic beverage made from neutral spirit with added flavours having the ‘characteristics of juniper’, not necessarily the actual botanical What it really is: Again spirit from molasses is labelled as gin adding some flavouring agent.

• Vodka: Made from neutral spirit, may be based on mola­sses, fermented grain or any other carbohydrates

• Brandy: Any spirit source and needs no grape content nor ageing. If 2 per cent pure grape brandy is added, then it is called blended brandy. What it really is: Indian brandy is just molasses spirit with a lot of added colour and grape flavour agent.

• Country Liquor: Just as in the case of IMFL, “country spirit is an alcoho­lic distillate from fermented mash of molasses” and other sources.

Source: Bureau of Indian Standards, Whisky Exchange