It’s not easy to survive in the cashew feni business, but Nuvem-based Rhea Distilleries is not only changing the way Goans perceive their favourite brew, but has gone one step ahead and won an international award, writes Karan Sehgal
Few years ago, cashew feni had almost lost the battle to alcoholic drinks like whiskey, vodka and rum; but in the last few years, quietly, feni has managed to make a turnaround, and one of the companies behind its reversal of fortunes is Rhea Distilleries.
Number-wise, feni sales in Goa may still not be a patch on whiskey sales, but companies like Rhea Distilleries have left no stone unturned in churning out one great feni after another so much so that it is even winning prestigious international awards.
Fidalgo Premium – a brand of feni Rhea Distilleries manufactures – won the silver medal at San Francisco International Wine and Spirits competition 2016. Regan Henriques, owner, Rhea Distilleries, said, “At this competition, the spirits are judged on blind tasting by a panel of judges.”
He continued, “We sent our Fidalgo Premium triple distilled to this event. We just wanted to see where this feni would stand in an international competition and we were thrilled to be informed that we were awarded a silver medal.”
It’s a huge achievement for Rhea Distilleries, which was started in the early 1970s by Regan Henriques’s father, the late Antonio Jose Henriques in Nuvem, Salcete. Henriques informed, “Rhea Distilleries today is the oldest operating distillery in Goa.”
To be in cashew feni business for so many decades is not easy, but Henriques has gone a step ahead, as he has been constantly innovating to put a better product in front of feni connoisseurs.
For instance, most feni brands available in the market are double distilled, but Fidalgo Premium is triple distilled, which is expensive to make and hence a better product. Henriques said, “We distil feni for a third time in our unit using steam and are able to control the process parameters to produce a more refined cashew feni, which is smoother with a good aroma.”
A number of young consumers don’t like the aroma of feni made in the traditional way. To deal with that, feni makers often use techniques to change the aroma so that it suits the palate of more people. This is exactly what Henriques did with Fidalgo Premium.
But, Henriques did not stop inventing at this stage, as he came out with another premium product called ‘Rhea Reserve’, which is matured in oak barrels. Typically, people associate oak barrels with Scotch whiskey.
He explains, “Rhea Reserve is aimed primarily at giving a true Goan an alternative to Scotch whiskey.” He further explained the process of making this feni, “It started as an experiment by filling and maturing an oak wood barrel with cashew feni. The maturation profiles were very encouraging. The oak wood did the magic of transforming the cashew feni into a nice amber coloured liquid having a delicious taste, a fantastic complex aroma with hints of nutty, fruity and woody profiles.”
It’s not easy to experiment like this, besides oak barrels are expensive in India and feni may behave differently if matured this way. He added, “Though we lose quite a bit of feni due to evaporation, but we have been steadily increasing the number of oak casks with feni under maturation.”
Just as Rhea Distilleries has given its everything to innovate and come out with superior feni, it also hasn’t made any compromises, when it comes to marketing its products. The company has been taking its products to competitions and events to make more people aware about its range of cashew feni.
Rhea Distilleries had a stall at the just concluded Food and Cultural Festival, where it sold cocktails based on cashew feni.
Henriques said, “At the Food and Cultural Festival, we used our Fidalgo Premium triple distilled cashew feni as the spirit base to make coladas and mojitos besides a host of other feni cocktails. We also made manhattans based on Rhea Reserve.”
It’s a little known thing even among connoisseurs of alcohol that cashew feni has a very high effervescence quotient, which makes it ideal for cocktails. Besides, cocktails have become very popular today.
Henriques informed that the response for his feni cocktails was overwhelming at the Food and Cultural Festival. He continued, “If mixed in right proportions, feni cocktails can be delicious, refreshing and can have people craving for more.”
Promoting feni through cocktails will help it in gaining the ground it has lost to other forms of alcohol over the years. Besides, it’s also true that Tequila didn’t gain a wide acceptability around the world until it was mixed with other alcohol and sold as a cocktail.
It appears that feni is learning this lesson from other kinds of alcohol, which is actually the right thing to do. The state government has also made it a point to help feni in ways it can. For instance, the government announced last year that it would like to declare feni as the “heritage spirit” of Goa.
On this, Henriques said, “Earlier, feni was classified as a country liquor, which was damaging its image. Feni’s image will elevate if it is reclassified as a heritage spirit because it will change its perception from being a cheap country liquor to a prestigious drink, which people with acquired taste have.”
There is lot of ground left for feni to regain, but there is no doubt that with the efforts of companies like Rhea Distilleries and the state government, feni is finally on the right track. The competitive headwinds will still be strong, but tinkering with aroma and mixing as cocktails will go a long way in making it a popular drink not only in Goa, but around the world as well.
