Asia’s premium spirits landscape is being reshaped by a new generation of entrepreneurs who are looking beyond established categories and conventional brand-building strategies. Mayukh Hazarika is part of that movement, bringing together entrepreneurship, creative thinking, sustainability, and a strong sense of regional identity to build beverages with a distinctive story. As founder of Raincheck Earth Co. and the force behind Cherrapunji Eastern Craft Gin, Hazarika draws inspiration from Northeast India’s extraordinary landscape and botanical diversity while challenging traditional ideas about how Indian craft spirits can be produced, packaged, and positioned.

In this exclusive conversation with Asia Spirits Ratings, Hazarika discusses the journey behind building a modern spirits brand, the importance of packaging and storytelling, and what emerging producers need to succeed in increasingly competitive markets. He also shares his perspective on changing consumer preferences, sustainability, opportunities for Asian spirits, and the personal experiences that continue to influence his journey as an entrepreneur and brand builder.

Image: Mayukh Hazarika

Your career spans brand strategy, marketing, and entrepreneurship. What inspired you to enter the beverage industry, and what convinced you that premium craft beverages from Northeast India could compete on a global stage?

The funny thing is, I had never worked in the spirits or alcohol industry. The idea came during COVID, when I'd gone back home to Shillong and spent time there. What struck me was that the place had immense potential to become a brand. At that point, it wasn't necessarily going to be a beverage brand at all. The starting point was the place itself, and the conviction that it could be turned into a brand.

But whatever I was going to create, the vision from day one was to take it global. Nobody needed to convince me the Northeast could compete on a global stage. The place has a magnetism to it, and I understood that potential from the start.

Cherrapunji has built a distinctive identity by combining local provenance, sustainability, and innovative packaging. How important is storytelling in influencing both trade buyers and consumers when evaluating a premium beverage?

Trade buyers understand the value of a good story, and so do consumers. With a premium beverage, the story matters even more. But it has to be truthfully told, with actual work behind it. In our case, the botanicals we process ourselves, the rainwater we genuinely harvest, the steel bottle, the jigger cap. It cannot just be a story. There has to be substance holding it up.

Asia Spirits Ratings evaluates wines based on quality, value, and packaging. From your perspective as a brand builder, why do these three pillars matter more than ever in today's competitive beverage market?

Quality, value, and packaging are exceptional foundations for judging a spirit. As a brand owner, you need all three, with a compelling brand story sitting on top of them. And if you look closely, each one is a medium of communication. The quality communicates itself, the value communicates itself, the packaging communicates itself. Long before anyone reads a word of your marketing, those three have already spoken. That's what makes it a great framework for judging wines and spirits.

Premium consumers across Asia are increasingly seeking authenticity. How can producers transform regional heritage into a compelling international brand without losing credibility?

It comes down to accountability, and brands have to hold themselves to it, because nobody else will do it for them. If you're playing a short game, that's a different story. But if you're playing the long game, everything you do has to be honest and authentic, because that's the only thing that carries a brand over the long term. Credibility is lost the moment anything you've told the world turns out not to be true, or you're caught misrepresenting what you do. Heritage gets you noticed, but only truth keeps you trusted.

Sustainability has become a major purchasing consideration for importers, retailers, and hospitality businesses. How do you see environmentally conscious packaging and production influencing buying decisions over the next decade?

For the conscious consumer, sustainability is already a compelling factor in the buying decision. Of course, there are consumers for whom it doesn't matter, but over the next decade it will only become more central.

More importantly, I believe it will become table stakes. Rather than treating sustainability as a selling point, brands should treat it as hygiene, something you simply must have. The moment every serious brand does it, nobody gets credit for doing it, and that's exactly how it should be.

Asian consumers continue to become more adventurous in their drinking habits. What trends do you believe will have the greatest impact on premium spirits and beverage consumption across the region over the next five years?

Asian consumers behave differently from the US or European markets, and the region has extraordinary richness in ingredients. Two trends stand out for me.

First, indigenous drinks are going mainstream. Sake and soju are already becoming hugely popular, and drinks like feni from Goa and mahua from India are being explored and loved. There's a lot of play left there.

Second, innovation within the established categories: gin, whisky, brandy, vodka. More craft brands will emerge with their own take, doing quality work with regional ingredients and a compelling story.

Export success requires much more than producing a great bottle. In your experience, what qualities separate brands that successfully enter international markets from those that struggle to gain traction?

The main differentiator is intent. A lot of export today happens because an importer reaches out to a brand, the brand ships its bottles, and it becomes a transaction. Export is a purely profit-driven exercise in which the brand doesn't care what happens beyond the shipment.

We approach it differently. If we're present in a market, we've decided to invest in it, whether that's with manpower, with strategy, or with marketing cover. That's the difference between playing the longer game and it being just one or two consignments.

Brands that struggle abroad usually ship bottles. Brands that succeed ship commitment.

Having worked extensively in brand communications before founding Raincheck Earth, how has your marketing background influenced every stage of product development, from concept to shelf presence?

A marketing background is a real advantage, because the foundation of marketing is understanding the consumer. The consumer sits at the centre, and when you build a brand from that starting point, the approach is very different.

Plenty of brand owners come to this industry from other directions. I have friends who are distillers with access to large agricultural produce, and they've found ways of turning excess produce into spirits. That's a valid approach, but the starting point and the desired outcome are completely different. They start with supply. I start with the consumer. For me, the outcome was always a spirit for the global stage, so it was marketing first, brand first, from day one.

Which spirits category do you believe has the greatest growth potential across Asia over the next five years, and why?

Whisky remains the undisputed leader across Asia, and I don't see that changing. But the fastest growth is coming from newer entrants, tequila chief among them.

The most interesting development, though, is what I expect over the next five years: real disruption across Asia from distillers and craft brands using local ingredients to make their spirits. That's where the surprises will come from.

Outside of work, what is your go-to spirit or cocktail when you're simply enjoying a drink with friends?

Honestly, at the end of a long day with friends, my go-to is a beer. It's something I really enjoy, and it almost brings closure to the day.

Conclusion

Mayukh Hazarika’s Cherrapunji Gin journey demonstrates how authentic storytelling, regional identity, sustainability, and innovation can help Indian craft spirits reach global markets. As Asian consumers embrace local ingredients and distinctive brands, Cherrapunji Gin reflects the growing potential of Northeast India and the wider Asian craft spirits movement.

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