‘My life is a lie’: The old monk is not ‘rum’? Why FSSAI’s Claim Has Left Drinkers Shocked | Today’s news

For generations of rum drinkers, Old Monk was simply rum. However, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has now told the Bombay High Court that the popular alcoholic drink cannot be sold as ‘rum’ as it is made using neutral spirit and rum flavoring.

Counsel for the regulator told the court on Thursday that its objection was not just to the product label, but to the nature of the drink itself.

“What is not allowed is to sell this product as rum,” FSSAI counsel said. The regulator said the product could instead be described as a “rum flavored spirit”.

And suddenly, for those who first discovered rum through the Old Monk, a rather strange question arises: Was everything we knew about our first rum wrong?

So, what exactly is rum?

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines rum as “an alcoholic beverage distilled from a fermented cane product (such as molasses)”.

For the famous romantic poet Lord Byron, the definition was less technical and more comforting. In his epic poem Don Juan Byron, he wrote: “There is no doubt that the spirit soothes as much as rum and true religion.”

So rum has its definitions, from the technical to the poetic. But the old monk’s current dispute concerns whether a product containing neutral alcohol and added rum flavoring can legally be sold as rum in India.

Read also | Old monk cannot be sold as rum, FSSAI tells court, as firm submits modified labels

Old monk and first generation rum

This author also had his first rum in the form of Old Monk in college in the company of friends who, like countless others, praised the spirit.

The Old Monk wasn’t just a drink that appeared at university gatherings. It became part of the conversations whenever this author met those friends later. It was one of those shared experiences that stayed with the group long after college.

So when FSSAI’s stance became known, this author spoke to one of these friends. His first reaction was disbelief, “Sab jhooth tha?” This friend has a habit of recording every event in his life that happened for the first time. “Now I don’t know when I drank real rum,” he said.

Social media users were equally incredulous amid FSSAI’s claims. The group, which for years called Old Monk rum, found it difficult to process the regulator’s description as a “rum-flavoured spirit”.

Why did FSSAI object to Old Monk?

The controversy goes beyond what’s printed on the bottle. The FSSAI told the HC that its laboratory tests found external artificial or nature-identical flavoring substances in the products. According to the regulator, these ingredients masked the natural properties of the drinks.

The regulator cited the Food Safety and Standards (Alcoholic Beverages) Regulations 2018, which require standardized alcoholic beverages such as rum and whiskey to retain their characteristic taste and aroma.

FSSAI argued that adding “rum flavor” to rum or “whiskey flavor” to whiskey distorts these standardized products.

Based on its findings, the regulator banned the sale of specific variants of McDowell’s No. 1 Rum, Antiquity Blue Whiskey and Royal Challenge Whiskey produced by United Spirits; a selection of Old Monk rum variants from Mohan Rocky Springwater; and Piper Deluxe Whiskey and Old Cask Deluxe XXX Rum from Inbrew Beverages.

Read also | Old Monk to HC: pulls ‘7 years old blended’ from label

What happened in Bombay High Court?

The dispute over the classification of Old Monk is also related to the labels of its products. During an earlier hearing on Monday, the company told the court it was prepared to amend its labels to remove the phrase “7-year-old blend”.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Ravindra V Ghuge and Justice Gautam A Ankhad directed the company to present a revised label.

The court also asked the FSSAI to specify the details and requirements that must be given on the packaging so that consumers can clearly distinguish the product. The State Excise Department has been ordered to review the revised label and expedite the approval process.

The bench found that consumers could be misled into believing that the rum had been aged for seven years. The company also questioned the text on the label, noting that it was “so small that no one can read it.”

The old monk presented the modified labels to the court on Thursday. FSSAI has requested more time to examine them and consider whether they could be approved. The matter will be discussed further on September 11.

Old manufacturer Monk says he’s losing ₹1 crore daily

Senior counsel Navroz H Seervai, representing the company, told the court that it had suffered a loss ₹1 million per day for the 120 days the ban was in effect, according to an earlier Mint report.

The Old Monk case is part of a wider controversy surrounding alcoholic beverages and FSSAI’s objections to added flavoring.

United Spirits, which faced a similar ban, withdrew its case on August 24. Its parent company Diageo, along with other spirits manufacturers, agreed to comply with the FSSAI guidelines by either removing the objectionable flavorings or modifying product labels.

So is Old Monk rum or “rum flavored spirit”?

For the regulator, the point is that a standardized alcoholic drink such as rum must retain its characteristic taste and aroma, and adding rum flavoring to the product does not meet this requirement.

For generations of drinkers, however, Old Monk has been their introduction to rum and perhaps their most familiar idea of ​​rum.

Which brings us back to that friend from college. For him, however, the regulatory difference remains difficult to digest.