A night out at a bar will have you witness a curious scene unfolding. A table with young adults chugging down their favourite craft beers, two women decompressing with glasses of martinis with a side of work gossip, probably another table where a boss lady is sipping whiskey on the rocks while cracking a business deal, and someone sipping on diet coke at the bar, waiting for a date to show up. And then there’s probably you, sipping on your unassuming Gin & Tonic.
Every alco-bev has a story, layers of narrative stirring in the glass as you sip on it. Have you ever wondered what it takes to bring that glass of G&T to your table? I know I have.
Everything starts with an idea, and you can get one anywhere. Quite literally. As was the case with Vaniitha Jaiin, co-founder of Vanaha. Back in 2017, while she was leisurely visiting the forests of Pondicherry, watching animals and insects flirt with the forest, the eureka moment struck — “Van-aha,” van meaning forest and aha meaning epiphany. Little did she know the term would go on to become the name of the first gin she launched.
As Jaiin told us over an intimate dinner, the journey from ideation to the final destination is long and tedious. It often begins in the resilience and skill you build over the years, right from childhood. Jaiin was a middle child, born in Ambasundaram, a small town in Tamil Nadu, and as with any middle child, she acquired the sincerity of the oldest and the dreamy nature of the youngest — a combination that fuelled her ambitions and dreams.
After years of building brands and learning the art of wines and spirits, Jaiin finally launched Vanaha in May 2025, a botanical gin made from 24 botanicals that will transport you into a forest because that’s exactly what they’ve done: bottled the aromas of a forest that reveal themselves, layer by layer.
Deep in the lush folds of North Goa’s Sattari region lies Revelry Distillery, a place where copper, glass, and forest botanicals converge in near-alchemical harmony. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill spirits factory; it’s a purpose-built, small-batch playground where precision technology shakes hands with old-world craft.
Inside, you’ll find a custom Hagyo copper pot still from Hungary used to make alcohol stronger. These pots heat a fermented liquid until it turns into a rising vapour. On cooling, it turns into a liquid with a higher alcohol content. This copper pot sits alongside a cold vacuum distillation setup, the first of its kind in India and a system so meticulous it turns every batch into a masterclass in flavour engineering. The process unfolds like theatre: botanicals macerate slowly, copper pot stills coax out character, vapour infusion captures the volatile notes, while cold vacuum distillation seals in the delicacy of juniper berries, khus, citrus peels, pine tips, cacao nibs, and dried palash flowers without letting heat bully them into submission.
The result? A layered, earthy-woody gin that carries the soul of the forest in every sip, proof that technology and terroir don’t just coexist here, they sing in chorus.
“It’s taken us almost 7000 man hours to craft this gin,” Jaiin said during one of our interactions. The amount of permutations and combinations Jaiin, her husband and co-founder Navvin Jaiin, and the distillery team undertook to craft the final flavour profile of Vanaha could alone make a multiverse of gins.
It’s one of the few gins that have brewed up a concoction of a variety of botanicals, 24, to be precise. It started with a portfolio of 500, narrowed to 200 before they settled on the final 24. Co-incidentally, each ingredient came from a different part of the country. Be it lemons from Assam, cacao nibs from the Malabar coast, or tefla, a Goan spice from the home state, this gin is truly a homegrown spirit in every way.
And it’s this thoughtful effort and attention to perfection that has made it the only gin brand to reach the finals at The Spirits Business Awards 2025 in the category of innovation and production, a big nod to the team’s vision.
Vanaha is a sipping gin. On its own, it smells of juniper berries and is spicy on the first sip. Add ice, and it turns woody and slightly less intense. Mix it with tonic water, and the flavour profiles completely switch. The aroma becomes sweeter, the taste more citrusy. It also changes with different food combinations. While cheese reduces the spice notes and makes the sipping experience smoother, fruits like grapes and kiwi enhance the fruity notes.
This is a gin that can be different things to different people, depending on what you like and enjoy. And that’s exactly why it stands out in a market that’s currently booming with several new gins. It’s not just the pretty packaging or the aesthetic appeal, it’s the fact that it is democratic enough to mould according to a drinker’s preferences. It can become the base for any kind of cocktail, from a martini to a picante, depending on what appeals to your palate.
Everything about Vanaha means something, the forest-green bottle reminiscent of deep canopies, the woodpecker symbol singing an ode to craftsmanship and artistic distillation, the name and flavours echoing the experience of walking deeper into a forest. This isn’t just another clear spirit. It tastes like a breath of fresh air and a whole lot of dreams.
