48th Edition E- Magazine Blogs

SHAD SKYE, SHILLONG From Features Desk Step out of Shillong’s narrow lanes and onto arooftop where the city seems to fall away. The airis cooler here, carrying the scent of rain-soakedpine and faint floral notes that linger like a secret.Brass glimmers in the fading sunlight, polishedwood feels grounding underfoot, and the horizonrolls with clouds curling over the hills. In yourhand, a glass reflects the colours of dusk, holdingnot just a drink but a story. This is Shad Skye: part cocktail bar, part cultural map, and entirely a celebration of the Northeast. A Name That Dances The name itself is a story. “Shad” means dance in Khasi, while “Skye”, from the Latin for sky, evokes freedom, movement, and boundless beauty. Together, they capture what this space truly offers, a celebration that rises above, both literally and figuratively.Cocktails That Tell Stories Shad Skye’s vision is bold yet intimate. It brings together the distinctive ingredients of the eightNortheastern states, interpreted with creativity and care by Head of Beverage, Rishot Laloo. He doesn’t just mix cocktails, he curates experiences. “Every cocktail is a conversation between the land and the glass,” says Rishot. “The goal is for guests to taste not just the flavour but the place it comes from.” Eight States, Eight Flavours Each cocktail is inspired by a state, turning heritage into liquid form: • Living Roots (Meghalaya): Inspired by the living root bridges, with earthy khus root, sweet carrot, and resinous pine. • Delicious Black (Manipur): A tribute to royal black rice harvests, blended with coconut cream and cardamom warmth. • Tuaite (Mizoram): Bamboo shoot meets jasmine’s floral delicacy and the sharp bite of ginger. • Wild Bloom (Arunachal Pradesh): Foraged herbs, wild citrus, and floral honey mirror the freshness of the mountains. • Golden Harvest (Assam): Assam’s iconic tea, woven with orchard fruits and gentle spices. • Smoked Ember (Nagaland): A smoky marriage of local chillies, charred pineapple, and dark rum. • Pine Valley (Tripura): Tropical pineapple balanced with kaffir lime and Himalayan salt. • Orchid Mist (Sikkim): Delicate orchid essence paired with apricot brandy and a subtle sparkle. Every recipe starts with a journey, a hillside market at dawn, a conversation with a farmer, or a trek to a remote valley. Rishot spends weeks tracing each flavour to its roots before slowly crafting infusions back in Shillong. It’s a meditative process where patience and precision decide when a cocktail finally feels complete. The Shad Skye Classics Beyond the state-inspired collection, the Shad Skye Classics reimagine timeless cocktails with local character: Ghost Pepper Picante: Tequila meets the fiery ghost pepper, balanced by rose petals and crisp apple juice. Culantro Mojito: A refreshing twist on the classic, using culantro instead of mint. Darjeeling Iced Tea: A misty mountain memory with black tea, guava juice, and a sparkling lift.A Rooftop That Breathes The space itself is an experience. Minimalist design, warm brass accents, and clean wooden lines allow the panoramic view of Shillong to shine. Each detail, from the furniture to the lighting, is chosen with intention, creating a space that feels both luxurious and grounding. But beauty here is matched with purpose. Shad Skye is deeply committed to sustainability, sourcing locally and building partnerships with growers, foragers, and communities. Every cocktail becomes not only a drink but a way of honouring the land and its people. More Than Just Cocktails At Shad Skye, drinks do more than quench thirst; they tell stories, carry traditions, and celebrate landscapes. Each sip feels like a dance, each glass like a piece of sky. And in Shillong, where the hills meet the clouds, that makes Shad Skye unforgettable.

Why so many women identify with gin today light, botanical, mixable, elegant, and how it plays into a subtle social shift in India’s urban drinking culture. Mansi Kotecha Guest Writer Gin greets you differently from other spirits. It doesn’t wrap you in warmth or weigh you down; it lifts, lingers, and leaves a trace of something you can’t quite name. A well-made gin and tonic feels like open air in a glass, bright, layered, a little mischievous.In recent years, I’ve noticed more women claiming that glass as their own. Not because gin is gentle, but because it’s versatile, shaped as much by who’s drinking it as by the botanicals in the bottle. In India’s evolving drinking culture, that matters. Gin doesn’t ask you to fit into a mould; it shifts with you, lets you set the tone. It’s a spirit that can whisper or sing, but either way, it never loses its composure. The Rise of Gin Among Indian Women I can’t pinpoint the exact moment it began, but somewhere between the bar takeovers I attended in Mumbai and the gin cocktails I sipped in Rajasthan and Delhi during work trips, I realised something had shifted. The tables that once held tumblers of whisky or tall vodka sodas were now dotted with slender glasses, condensation sliding down, a slice of grapefruit or a sprig of rosemary catching the light. The tables that once held tumblers of whisky or tall vodka sodas were now dotted with slender glasses, condensation sliding down, a slice of grapefruit or a sprig of rosemary catching the light. For me, gin came later. I had spent years with beers and wines, but gin was never part of my world, until one day, I ordered it on a whim. The first sip caught me off guard: bright, layered, and alive. I was hooked. The tonic water brought an unexpected sense of familiarity; growing up in Tanzania, tonic water was something we drank as medicine, its bitterness softened with the promise of health. Now, that same note carried a new meaning, still sharp, still memorable, but wrapped in something far more joyful. Whisky carries heritage; it comes with a certain gravitas, a story already written before you take your first sip. Vodka offers anonymity, being clean, adaptable, but often without a distinct voice of its own. Gin sits somewhere else entirely. It is expressive yet flexible, refined yet playful. It can feel like an afternoon in the garden or a night in the city, shaped entirely by the botanicals in the glass and the mood of the person holding it. In India’s evolving drinking culture, that freedom is quietly radical. Botanicals, Branding & the Language of Taste Gin speaks in aromas first. Before a drop touches the tongue, there’s the inhale: juniper edged with citrus, a whisper of spice, and the faint green of herbs. For many women, that moment is as much a part of the experience as the drink itself. It’s not only about alcohol; it’s about beauty, ritual, and mood. Indian gin makers have understood this and woven our own vocabulary into the spirit. Stranger & Sons nods to our spice cupboards with pepper, mace, and coriander seed. Hapusa reaches for the Himalayan forests, grounding its gin with wild juniper and fragrant cardamom. Pumori from Goa blends rosemary, vanilla, and cinnamon with Indian citrus, creating a gin that feels both coastal and cosmopolitan. These botanicals flavour a drink, and they anchor it emotionally. A sip becomes a memory trigger with kitchens warm with cardamom, gardens heavy with basil, summers bright with citrus. In a way, Indian gin doesn’t just taste familiar, it feels personal, and that is where its quiet power lies. Gin in Feminine Spaces I’ve seen gin show up differently depending on the room. At women-led brunches, it’s often the first drink on the table, bright, photogenic, and light enough to sip while conversations meander from work to travel to life’s quiet victories. At women-only tastings, the energy shifts again: curiosity takes over. People linger over aromas, debate the merits of tonic versus soda, and trade garnish secrets like family recipes. Gin works well here because it isn’t a drink that demands dominance; it invites participation. You can talk about it without sounding like you’re reciting a manual. You can customise it by adding a sprig of mint, a slice of orange, a shard of ice that melts slowly, and it becomes yours. In these spaces, the focus isn’t intoxication but connection. Gin has become the punctuation mark in conversations, soft enough not to interrupt, vivid enough to remember. Breaking the Binary For a long time, women’s drinking choices in India existed on a quiet spectrum – sweet cocktails and wine at one end, straight whisky or rum at the other. Choosing the ‘wrong’ end meant inviting judgment: too soft and you weren’t serious, too strong and you were “trying to be one of the boys.” Gin slipped through that gap almost unnoticed. It didn’t demand that you prove yourself, nor did it pat you on the head for playing safe. It could be crisp and sharp one night, floral and playful the next. It lets you call the shots, literally, on how it should be served. Older generations saw alcohol as something to be approached with caution, a marker of special occasions or male domains. Today, gin lives in everyday moments without needing permission. It’s elegant without being fragile, expressive without being loud, a spirit that, in its own quiet way, rewrites the rules. Feminine or Feminist? The rise of gin among Indian women isn’t just about what’s in the glass; it’s about what it signals. For too long, the spirits world was a man’s domain: men behind the bar, men distilling the bottles, men deciding what counted as ‘serious’ drinking. Women were expected to stay on the sidelines, order something light, sweet, or nothing at all. But gin has opened another path. Women now distil their own gins, lead bar

Neelu Chandni Guest writer An old Irish proverb says, “What whisky will not cure, there is no cure for.” And true that! When it comes to whiskies, there are no bad ones. It’s just that some are better than the others. The Indian Single Malt Whiskey industry has undergone weighty transformation. Indian liquor companies are rising to the challenge to meet and even exceed global expectations when it comes to premium single malts. Sales of Indian single malts have shot up in recent times and even outsell their Scottish counterparts in the country. Today we bring to you a new (but not so new) premium single malt from India – GianChand. Handcrafted in a distillery situated in the lap of the Himalayas, GianChand has a rich golden colour, a distinctive sweetish and spicy taste and peaty fruity notes. Manufactured by Devans Modern Breweries Ltd. in Jammu, DeVANS and was established in 1961 and has been manufacturing and selling matured malt spirit inception. DeVANS which turned 65 recently, was set up by Dewan Gian Chand, a former journalist, at Bohri, Jammu and started life as a small liquor bottling unit to which a small brewery was added in 1967. Today, the company has two distilleries in Jammu, including the one at the original site in Jammu where the single malts are distilled. The company also operates two breweries- one in Kotputli, Rajasthan, and the other at Samba near Jammu. Its portfolio of beers includes the legendary Godfather and Six Fields. The name of the single malt is an ode to the company’s founder Dewan Gian Chand who set up the manufacturing unit at Jammu at a time when the industry was still nascent in the region. His wholesale liquor depot which was started in 1942 in the city still operates from the same premises even today.Jammu is ideal for distillation and maturation of malt spirits with its unique weather, warmer during the day and cooler at night which makes the spirit mellower and imparts it with a unique bouquet during maturation leading to a well-rounded whisky. Made from six-row barley grown in India, the single malts from DeVANS are unlike any other malts produced in the country and are being lapped up by connoisseurs across the world. The GianChand Indian single malts launched in 2022 is smooth, light and easy to drink, with a delicate nose of brandy snaps, apricots and honeycomb toffee. There are mild notes of peat and dry oak from the wooden casks the malts are aged in. Expect a mix of spicy and fruity flavours, with a hint of peat and smokiness – a whisky that would go perfectly with Indian grills and tandoor dishes.DeVANS has recently launched its new expressions – GianChand Manshaa and GianChand Adambarraa. While GianChand Adambarraa is an unpeated whisky, GianChand Manshaa is the first peated whisky from the DeVANS stable. GianChand Manshaa walked away with the INTERNATIONAL WHISKY OF THE YEAR award from among 450 brands at the prestigious Meininger’s International Spirits Award (ISW 2025) in Germany surpassing entries from top whisky producing nations. The whisky impressed the ISW jury with its “long medicinal peat smoke balanced by citrus and spicy flavors” and has been praised for its “charming smokiness with peat in sparkling form” by renowned international critic Jim Murray. GianChand Manshaa truly shone this year, showcasing the quality and sophistication of Indian spirits on the global stage. A peated expression that captivated global judges! DeVANS other new expression – GianChand Adambarra also shown on the global stage and recently won the BEST INDIAN MALT WHISKY as also the BEST INDIAN WHISKY awards at the International Whisky Competition (IWC 2025) in Las Vegas, USA. The expression has already captured the attention of international connoisseurs and whisky gurus – including Jim Murray, who upon tasting it, exclaimed: “Can this really be an Indian whisky?” The whisky’s signature notes made a lasting impression on the IWC 2025 judges as well. Known for its blind tasting format, the IWC is regarded as the world’s most followed whisky only competition.An excerpt from Jim’s review of Adambaraa, slated to be published in the Whisky Bible 2025, states, “I am as shocked as I am spellbound. This is by far the closest to a high-class Scottish malt I have found anywhere in the world, let alone in India. The intensity and purity of the barley is never for a moment compromised. A malt lover’s dream of a whisky.” This echoes the ethos of Adambaraa and rightly so as it engulfs you and steadily leads you to happiness and pleasure.Matured in handpicked American bourbon casks, Adambaraa presents a rich amber colour with notes of dried apricots, honey, and toasted spice. As one tastes it, a gentle sweetness envelops the palate, with caramel and toffee notes unfolding with finesse. Commenting on the whisky’s global performance, Prem Dewan, Chairman and Managing Director of DeVANS, said, “This prestigious Grand Gold and International Whisky of the Year award at ISW Meininger, Germany 2025 is a great recognition of our passion, craft and commitment to quality and embodies DeVANS pursuit for excellence. These awards are not only for DeVANS but a recognition for the future of Indian single malts and India’s expanding role in the global perspective.” “GianChand Manshaa and GianChand Adambaraa represent two facets of our legacy: one bold and peated, the latter refined and elegant – both crafted to suit today’s evolving tastes.Their success is a tribute to our team’s hard work and reinforces India’s rightful place among the world’s top producers of single malts,” added Dewan. With this win, GianChand Manshaa puts Indian single malts firmly on the world map – proving that India can produce world-class whiskies that rival the best.These wins reaffirm DeVANS’ position at the forefront of India’s rapidly evolving single malt landscape and highlight the increasing quality and global competitiveness of Indian artisanal single malts. It celebrates DeVANS’ commitment to innovation and tradition in spirit-making, reflecting a proud moment for the Indian spirits industry.