July 11: After experiment with still apple cider for a few years, pickles/jams and fruit wine producer has made the sparkling (carbonated) version, branding it as Minchy’s Cidekick Sparkling Apple Cider and plans to expand the operation out of state based on current year’s response, writes Subhash Arora who met him at his office in Shoghi, a small town near Shimla where he tasted the sparkling cider and feels that the reasonably priced cider should have good potential with improved quality
Pics By:: Adil Arora
Minchy’s is a household word in Shimla and in fact the whole of Himachal Pradesh for pickles, juices, jams and also fruit wines being made by Minocha Industries , owned by Girish Minocha, an electrical engineering graduate from Delhi College of Engineering, Delhi. He was forced into making fruit wine due to competition blocking its distribution system for juices and pickles due to lack of fruit wines. Today, he sells around 8,000 cases of fruit wines under Wonder Wyne label from apple, apricot, peaches, strawberries, cherries, kiwis, rhododendron (flower), pear and a small quantity of grape wines.
He makes WOW label apple vinegar for a US company and claims to be the biggest producer for cold press brand selling at Amazon. He has been making apple juice vinegar with an installed capacity of 500,000 liters. This year he branched out to making sparkling low alcohol apple cider with up to 8% alcohol (15 proof) , he makes the sparkling version by infusing Carbon dioxide at the end of filtration process, bringing some fizz (frizzante).
He launched the label in September last year and has been making 12,000 bottles (650 mL) a month. Carbonation has been manual but will be automated in the future versions. He expects 200% growth in 3 years and plans to bring out the 330 mL variant soon. There is no MRP in Himachal but you can get it from Rs. 140-160 a bottle. At his factory outlet in Shoghi where he gives some discount, it is available for a very 
reasonable Rs. 130. It has become so popular that there is backlog of about 20 days at the moment. The price is quite low partly because the excise duty is very nominal at Rs. 3 per liter; VAT is also more reasonable at 13.75%.
He would like to expand out of Himachal to the neighbouring states but unfortunately, excise duties are very high, including in Delhi and the product becomes non competitive. He plans to increase it to 50,000 bottles a month. But for this he needs to expand production. For this he needs land and is looking around to buy some and also scouting around for an equity partner.
He does not use any preservative-very little of Sulphur. Carbon dioxide fizz level goes down after a few months and so the shelf life is one year-making it difficult to sell pan India. In a lighter vein he adds that that whatever is left unused may be used to shampoo hair as apparently it is very good for hair.
Made from all varieties of apples from Himachal Pradesh, it has not reached the best level of quality in terms of flavour or even fizziness though quite fresh on the palate. With these flavours it is well priced but to expand the market, flavours have to be improved by controlling the process more rigidly, avoiding oxidation in the process and ensuring the quality of the raw material to be top notch. Else, it might not be able to compete with the imported apple ciders.
Try buying a case of Cidekick Cider on your way back from Shimla or ask your friends returning from Shimla to pick up a (case of Minchy’s Cidekick apple cider) It is healthy, inexpensive and drinkable. With lower alcohol, it can be a good accompaniment with Indian food as well. The carbon dioxide can act as palate cleanser too.
Many people ask delWine regularly about the possibility of buying apple cider, Unfortunately, the Indian variant is made only in Himachal Pradesh. Ideal for women and novices who would like to have low alcohol and enjoy it with or without food.
Subhash Arora
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