Overview: The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has challenged the ‘7 years old blended’ claim on Old Monk, revealing that matured rum constitutes less than five percent of the product. Following an investigation by the Bombay High Court, sales were banned in Maharashtra over misleading labelling, prompting the brand to remove specific age statements from packaging.
The Full Story
For many consumers in India, Old Monk represents a near-cult following, characterized by its deep mahogany-brown appearance and rich amber-red hue. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) challenged the ‘7 years old blended’ claim by the brand, stating that investigations found matured rum makes up less than five percent of the product. Consequently, the FSSAI has banned the sale of the product in Maharashtra over what it considers misleading labelling.
Mohan Rocky Springwater, the makers of Old Monk, told the court that it will blank out the line ‘7 years blend’ from products. The dispute extends beyond this specific brand to highlight broader regulatory differences. While the FSSAI’s action is about labelling, it highlights how artificial flavouring and a lesser percentage of matured rum or whisky are allowed under Indian standards compared to European Union countries. Under FSSAI regulations, neutral spirit or ENA is defined as alcohol produced by distillation and rectification of fermented agricultural material to a minimum strength of 96 per cent alcohol by volume.
Production & Profile
Traditional rum production begins with sugarcane or sugarcane-derived materials such as molasses or sugarcane juice, which are mashed, fermented, and distilled. The spirit is then placed into wooden casks for maturation to pick up colour and develop aroma. However, a quicker route exists through extra neutral alcohol, or ENA. Under FSSAI’s regulations, neutral spirit can be produced from grains, fruits, vegetables, molasses and other agricultural carbohydrates. Repeated distillation and high rectification remove most of the flavour and aroma associated with the original raw material.
Ageing alcohol means tying up capital for years, a process that is particularly acute in India’s climate due to high humidity and temperature. The loss, or what is called the ‘angel’s share’, is very high when spirits are aged in barrels here. For example, at Huli Spirits, the distillate enters 200-litre ex-bourbon barrels at around 61-62 per cent alcohol by volume. During the first year, if care is taken during summer, loss is around 10–11 per cent. Over three years, cumulative loss can be substantial. In hot conditions, annual loss can be higher, reaching around 14–15 percent.
Brand & Industry History
India is a major sugar producer, which means molasses—a byproduct of sugar manufacturing—has traditionally been available in large quantities for alcohol production. Since molasses is available in abundance and has limited applications in other agricultural processes, it has traditionally been used as a primary raw material for producing certain categories of whisky. This historical context supports the use of neutral agricultural spirit in these categories. The market demand remains heavily influenced by price sensitivity, where every litre lost to evaporation has an economic cost.
What This Means
The Old Monk dispute is ultimately forcing the Indian spirits industry to confront the distinction between traditionally distilled and matured spirits versus neutral spirit-based production more openly. The regulator has said such a product should instead be identified as a flavoured product, potentially creating a new category like flavoured rum or rum-flavoured spirit. There is also a significant difference in cost regarding flavouring; natural flavours are extremely expensive, while nature-identical flavours are cheaper. This raises the question of why neutral agricultural spirit is allowed in India in the first place, given that EU rules for whisky require maturation for at least three years in wooden casks and do not permit added alcohol or flavouring.
Consumer Takeaway
The answer to what a consumer is drinking lies in reading the label. Companies are mostly truthful about the ingredients, so if the label says extra neutral alcohol, that indicates the product is based on neutral spirit. The label can tell where the alcohol came from but cannot indicate how much character came from the raw material, the still, the barrel or the blender. A more expensive bottle may carry the cost of better raw materials, a more characterful distillate, longer maturation, expensive casks, greater evaporation losses and capital tied up in inventory for years.
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