Festive season sets in, cheap liquor snug under pricey tags

Hyderabad: While brand mixing in premium liquor segment seems to be thriving and turning heady especially in the festive season, it has also opened new opportunities to some of the ‘skilled' workers who seem to revel in uncorking the bottles with elan.
According to excise authorities, these workers have mastered the art of removing caps from premium new bottles, filling them with cheap liquor and putting the caps back on the bottles leaving no shred of evidence of tampering and making it hard to distinguish if the premium brand is compromised.
"They earn around Rs 500 for each bottle they handle, showcasing their ‘high skill'. This brand mixing tends to spike during the festive season," an industry insider said. Little wonder, this particular skill has opened a big demand for persons primarily working in hotels and restaurants, sources said.
Excise enforcement officials said that new premium liquor bottles, priced over Rs 3,000, are particularly susceptible to this form of deception. "It involves mixing a small amount of liquor from a new premium bottle with a cheaper variety and then pouring it into a used bottle of the same brand," an official explained.
Interestingly, those engaged in this uncorking activity rely solely on their hand coordination and do not rely on any tools, making it challenging for the authorities to detect tampering of the bottle, an insider said.
During Dasara and forthcoming Deepavali, rich people host small gatherings and serve liquor. Some event managers in collusion with hotel and restaurant staff get into this brand mixing, officials pointed out. These organisers often claim that they can provide high-end liquor at a lower price as tipplers would not notice any tampering.
Another interesting facet on how the authorities detect this brand mixing of liquor bottles is that they do not rely on lab tests but simple scanning of the bottles. Enforcement agencies utilise a mobile app that provides detailed information on the liquor manufacturing source (depot) and its journey to retail outlets. "If a bottle doesn't originate from the designated depot or if an old bottle is being sold, the app will alert the officials immediately," a department official explained.