FIRST JOURNEYS - 80 GINS AROUND THE WORLD - PIN 54 OF 80
HAPUSA GIN, Goa, India
AROUND THE WORLD, ONE BOTTLE AT A TIME,
PHILEAS FOGG WOULD SURELY APPROVE
A gin that put Himalayan juniper, Indian mango and turmeric into the bottle — and helped kick-start India's modern craft gin movement.
When I first tried Hapusa I loved it so much I only wanted to sip it on ice, so I'm sticking with a bone-dry Martini, waved in the general direction of Italy and with a slither of lemon peel.
Hapusa is the Sanskrit word for juniper and this is not just a gin with an Indian theme stuck on the label. The juniper actually comes from the Himalayas, and the rest of the botanicals have been gathered from different parts of India, making this a gin that really is about the country and its ingredients.
There is mango and turmeric, but also ginger, cardamom, coriander, Gondhoraj lime and almonds. Gondhoraj is a particularly lovely choice because it is an aromatic lime associated with Bengal and is used extensively in Indian cooking.
So you can almost eat your way through the recipe. The mango and lime bring you towards the bright, fresh side of Indian food, while turmeric, ginger and cardamom take you straight towards the spice cupboard. And then there is that Himalayan juniper tying everything back to gin.
Nao Spirits was founded in 2015 by Anand Virmani and Vaibhav Singh, who were both involved in India's bar scene. They had noticed something rather obvious: there were plenty of gins around the world being inspired by India, but very few actually being made in India.
Their answer was to make one.
They started with Greater Than, which was designed as a classic London Dry and was launched in 2017 as India's first craft gin. Then came Hapusa in 2018, taking the idea in a completely different direction.
Greater Than looks outward to the history of gin; Hapusa looks firmly inwards to India.
The Himalayan juniper was particularly important. Nao Spirits wanted to find a juniper that was actually Indian rather than importing the usual berries used by most gin producers. After searching, they found Himalayan juniper growing at altitude and built the gin around it.
Hapusa was then developed to take you on a journey through India. The botanicals come from different regions and the idea was to bring together the country's very different landscapes, cuisines and cultures in one bottle.
It is also why I think Hapusa works so well as a sipping gin. Nao Spirits themselves suggest drinking it straight from the freezer, and I can completely understand that. It doesn't need a complicated serve to make it interesting.
The gin is distilled in copper at Nao Spirits and bottled at 43% ABV. Their distillery is in India and the company has continued to build its range since those early days. There is now Juniper Bomb, a more juniper-heavy expression of Greater Than, Broken Bat Gin, inspired by India's love of cricket, No Sleep, made in collaboration with Dope Coffee Roasters, and seasonal releases such as Punk Gin.
I like that Nao hasn't simply created one successful Indian gin and stopped there. The whole portfolio has become a way of exploring different parts of Indian culture and ingredients.
Hapusa, though, remains the one that really tells the original story for me.
And there is something rather satisfying about the fact that a gin created because its founders couldn't find a good Indian-made craft gin has gone on to become one of the bottles that helped define the new Indian gin movement. India now has a thriving craft gin scene, with producers all over the country looking at local junipers, spices, fruit, tea and other indigenous ingredients and putting their own interpretation on the category.
When Hapusa first appeared, that was still relatively unusual.
I really don't think you can have one without the other in your collection, so I would still recommend getting both Greater Than and Hapusa. Not just because they are excellent gins, but because they tell two sides of the same story.
Greater Than says, “We know what gin is.”
Hapusa says, “Now let us show you what gin can be when you make it in India.”
For me, knowing how and why a gin came about is hugely important. It gives me a connection to what I'm drinking and a better understanding of why the bottle tastes the way it does. There is clear passion in these two bottles and a real sense of pride in what they represent.
And Hapusa still exceeds my expectations.
“India in a bottle — from Himalayan juniper to mango, turmeric and the spice routes of the subcontinent”
Martini
"Show me a bottle
and I'll tell you a story."