“If these glasses could speak, the history of Goa could be told,” explains Nandan Kudchadkar, the founder of Goa’s—and perhaps India’s—first museum dedicated to alcohol. Spread across 13,000sqft in Goa’s Candolim, the museum, All About Alcohol houses bottles and glasses that date back to the 15th and 16th century as well as ancient manufacturing and distilling equipment sourced from across India and the world.

India gets its first alcohol museum

“I’ve done many alcohol tours and trails across the globe, but as far as I have seen, these are only run by brands—so if you go to Scotland, you can learn about a specific single malt’s journey, but it’s very hard to get an understanding of the history of the spirit in a cohesive manner, says Kudchadkar. Keeping this in mind, All About Alcohol has been devised to represent the multiple aspects of the alcohol production and consumption process.

Divided across five rooms, the museum takes visitors through a journey from manufacturing and distilling to fumigation. An old-style Goan tavern has been created with bottles and glassware from Portugal as well as a feni cellar, that houses more than a thousand bottles of coconut and cashew feni that dates back to 1946. In the cellar, visitors can sample some of this aged feni—from Kudchadkar’s private family collection—and be a part of an in-house feni tasting and pairing session. “Feni is such a uniquely Goan spirit and it has such an interesting story that is linked to the history and culture of the state as a whole,” explains Kudchadkar.

Inside the museum, you’ll spot ancient garrafãos and mud pots that were used to store and rest feni, an antique alcohol shot dispenser, a sugarcane crusher for cocktails, glass pint holders for long journeys, silver water pots, corkscrew juicers, mixers, jiggers and innumerable other alcohol paraphernalia. Visitors will be able to navigate the museum with the help of in-house guides who will explain the stories behind some of these unique pieces.

Apart from running LPK Waterfront Club in Candolim, Kudchadkar is also an avid collector and history buff. The entire museum is filled with artefacts from his personal collection, built over roughly 30 years. “About 25 years ago, many locals began to sell their land and with that, antique bar curios, cutlery and all kinds of paraphernalia were sold at dirt cheap rates. No one knew what they were worth back then and I picked them up, solely out of interest—I’m thrilled that I can finally share these gems with the public,” says Kudchadkar.

Source : Conde Nast Traveller ( https://www.cntraveller.in/story/candolim-inside-goas-first-alcohol-museum-all-about-alcohol/)