1.12 Hansel Vaz describes Feni's journey from a local Goan drink to a global spirit!

If you had to describe Goa, not in words but in taste, we bet you wouldn’t be able to look past the traditional Goan drink - Feni! 

Hansel Vaz tells us how a life-altering accident motivated him to turn Feni into a unique, international drink. How is Feni perceived in the global market? Can it ever replace wine or whiskey to become a mainstream drink? What is the relationship between Goa’s monsoons and its drinking culture? Tune in to find out! 

Hansel Vaz is the founder of Cazulo Premium Feni. He is also the partner of Vaz Enterprises, a family owned business which has been around for 2 generations, which was started at their family home in Kunkali. He is a former geologist. And now at the forefront of making Goa’s heritage drink Feni into a global spirit. 

Travel tip: If you are a literature geek, spend a few hours exploring the wide collection of books at the Literati Bookshop in Calangute!

Brought to you by Bound, a company that helps you grow through stories. Follow us @boundindia on all social platforms for updates on this podcast or take a look at their other podcasts.

Hosted by Clyde D’Souza. He is a creative director who has worked in TV, print, and digital. His book Susegad: The Goan Art Of Contentment captures Goa through conversations, memories, stories, recipes and much more. He lives between Mumbai and Goa and lives the Susegad lifestyle every day! Follow him on Instagram @clydedsouzaauthor. 

Produced by Aishwarya Javalgekar

Editing and soundtrack by Aditya Arya

Artwork by Artisto Designz 

Brought to you by Bound, a company that helps you grow through stories. Follow us @boundindia on all social platforms for updates on this podcast or take a look at their other podcasts.

Hosted by Clyde D’Souza. He is a creative director who has worked in TV, print, and digital. His book Susegad: The Goan Art Of Contentment captures Goa through conversations, memories, stories, recipes and much more. He lives between Mumbai and Goa and lives the Susegad lifestyle every day! Follow him on Instagram @clydedsouzaauthor.

Transcript

Clyde D'Souza  0:08  
Hello and welcome to say God stories from Guam. I'm your host Clyde de Souza. I'm a three time published author, media professional, and a go on who loves everything about God. My latest book is called to say God, the golden out of contentment. In my podcast, I chat with some famous and some of my favorite goals. And together we explore go beyond the speeches from Fany to follow Casa to cashews, come discover GWA like you've never done before.

My guest today is gauze. Very famous Hansel was. He is the founder of kazoo premium Fany and a partner of wise enterprises, a family owned business that has been around for two generations, and which was started in their family home in Concord, the Hansard as a former geologist, and now at the forefront and global ambassador of making GWAS heritage drink the Fini into a global spirit. And to that I say Weaver Welcome to the cigar stories podcast. Hansel, it's great to talk to you again. Yeah, thanks, Glenn. I think the last time we spoke on is when I was writing my books to say God, and you gave me such excellent content that I think it's added some serious value to the book. So yeah, I'm happy to have you.

Unknown Speaker  1:36  
So remember the conversation. I was by the dogs sitting outside breaking oysters, because we were trying to actually do a pairing with oysters and painting. Wow.

Clyde D'Souza  1:45  
Okay, we'll we'll talk about that more than so before I get into the interview, what I like to do because this is a podcast, and it's only audio, right? So I like to ask my guests where they're from and go, and if they can just kind of describe their surroundings. So please tell us where you're from. And so I

Unknown Speaker  1:59  
am actually South going completely green green apart. I mean, I'm just five minutes from the beach. I'm 30 seconds from the hill across my house.

Clyde D'Souza  2:09  
Right. And if I'm not mistaken, you're from Consoli, right? No,

Unknown Speaker  2:12  
I'm actually from Cali. We're known as the fighters. The warriors. We come from, from from cumberly We're supposed to be a hot headed bunch. I live in Kula banally border. Mahali supposed to be the place where they always say these are the Mad people so so and my mum Samira spent a lot of that initial years. Moira is also known for Marina banana is going to be a little crazy there as well. So I've got a little craziness and a little hot headed.

Clyde D'Souza  2:40  
So right now you're mad and you're fighting for fini. Fighting. Brilliant. Okay, now Hansel, I didn't know this. But when I was doing the research, right, and I came across this article, which said that in 2018, apparently you had a near death experience, after which this image and vision came to you one of garff house and a funny seller. And I was like, Okay, wow, I didn't know about this. So can you tell us a little bit about this? Crazy man, amazing story.

Unknown Speaker  3:10  
So I started the Feeny journey much before. And I think I just there was this drive from doing things. Working on a painting brand, I was working on improving quality, working on creating cooperatives to start making funny. And with an emphasis for tradition, and that's what I was doing. And at the same time, I was also buying data for which there are fish. So gara Gara. Farm means bottle in Portuguese. Gara found means big bottle, and garfish many bottles, big bottles. So I was buying these many garfish all over the place. But I was still working overseas. So I still have money and are still doing things as working as a geologist. And it's a well paying job. And then I quit. And I think I quit. And I think I put a little extra pressure on myself. And I did not know that we had a we have a congenital defect in the heart, the family, the heart. And so I didn't think I was I mean, full of energy doing everything and suddenly that it was not a heart attack. I started with a heart attack. I reached the hospital. And my heart stopped, and my heart stopped for 18 minutes. I know this sounds really weird. It sounds really weird. But my habits of 18 minutes, I was revived three times. I mean, they gave me the different defibrillator. And then I was finally revived. And I came back, you don't come back. And that's one of the biggest things I learned. Don't people say Don't second chance. I got a second chance. And then when I was still in on life support, one of one doctor. She came and she thought I was under. I was in unconscious. I mean, I was like in sleeping but I was actually conscious. But I had all these machines on me. I couldn't talk and she was just narrating to the other doctor. But what happened to me. That was the first time I realized something like that happened to me that I was out for 18 minutes. I come back And I was shocked, I was in complete disbelief. I couldn't believe what it what it happened. I think the miracle was that my brain came back, totally normal. But I was physically out of sorts. I couldn't walk. I couldn't. I could read. I couldn't make sense of it. I couldn't write. But there was this enormous will that came back to push myself back. I was mumbling about getting the fainting going all through that dark hours in the night, that happened. And I was just when I just revived. I was apparently just ma'am, just talking only about Finney. And, like, continuing the work had started before. And I didn't know what is happening. That's all I was talking about. But I had that vision. And I'll explain to you what actually happened. Yeah, please. In a heart attack, your heart slows down. Okay? When I was stopped for 18 minutes, when my heart stopped reading minutes, your heart stops completely. And so your muscle, your heart is not a brain surgery, rhythm, rhythmic muscles, so I lost my rhythm, to start all over again, and to train my heart, just to sit down and just to walk, what used to run. What is to think to do when you're thinking to run your heart will pump that way. My heart did not mean to do that. But what is what was interesting is when that oxygen I think I think this is what actually happened. When the oxygen was deprived in my brain. I think it gave my brain a shock. I was thinking a million miles an hour. I mean, I'm telling you, boom, boom, boom, boom, the next. I think six months, my mind was just booming with ideas just booming with the thoughts and everything was just, it's like you're going in a fast forward in a video game. It was something. Okay. It's something like like The Matrix.

Clyde D'Souza  6:38  
Yeah, I have I have goosebumps. This urine, you tell us about this.

Unknown Speaker  6:45  
And then I had this vision. And this is very interesting as Baden SAP had this vision of his room with all these guys. Darfur is lit up from from, from behind, with a long table inside. And I had to do this. And and I realized every time I woke up, something would go. So I woke up and I just saw my envelope by the side. Some mail had come and I couldn't read certain emails, the males were just there. I picked up a pen. And I just drew and I passed out. Well, I woke up the next day and then I I would keep on passing out, you know that that? So I few days later, I mean, a couple of months later, I had an envelope and got my workmen. And we built it. And what was interesting was nobody knew what it was. My Mason did not know my my nobody knew. And nobody knew. And you know, it's a crazy thing. Nobody knew what it was because it was all in my head only I cry. Yeah. So when you look at that hole, the first time that we ever been my Feeny disability and everything, all that was in my head, and it just unfolded, unfolded, unfold. And I came up with the experience, I came out. And that's one thing I took off after the whole thing was that life doesn't give you a second chance. And you really don't know what it means when it's in real life. Everyone lives life to the thing they live their life. But there's one thing that you are what I realize is that you gotta live your life. I mean to the fullest, and it has a totally different meaning when it when you been through what I've been, it has its perils as well, because I didn't push myself too much. It's something that I've always done. I have to live my life. And I think the before and after the holodeck is completely different. You see the the work that I've done was doing before was like a normal person's life. Right? And you see what's happened after 2017 is superhuman. Everyone says, Man whoever's been chatting would have done it's like superhuman, my sales have increased my right welcome is exponential reactions to the industry in many ways, but I've not done it alone. I mean, as much as I would like, the thing a lot of people have facilitated

Clyde D'Souza  8:49  
Wow, honestly, I had goosebumps listening to the entire thing and thank you for sharing something so personal. And I think the listeners will get a lot out of this entire part that you just said and you know what it has kind of brought about which is the first time the kazoo right and that the dining experience which I personally yes yet have to experience and which I will very shortly I'm sure Yeah, and that was that was just amazing. Now, the other thing that I want to ask you is now for me personally, right when I grew up as a kid, I remember Costa roasting cashews in the summer with my Nana and she used to tell us to be very careful when you're plucking the cashew fruits or picking it up from the ground. Not to eat it's bunk. For the for the listeners who don't know bonk means Balmain company and she would say banca Anika, okay, and I was like what and you know, it's such a weird thing to say to a kid. And then then that's when she would say that don't need the the bottom part of it where the seed grows out from because that's the key and it's sappy and you can stick on to your tongue and all of that. So you need to eat the casual fruit from the other end. Now, can you tell us a little bit because you've grown up also probably doing the same thing and you've lived with the family that has been creating funny. What are the different what is the Have you fruit and what is it? And what are the different juices that one can get out of it? If you can just tell our listeners a little bit about that?

Unknown Speaker  10:06  
Yeah, so So interestingly, the casual is not a normal fruit. It's actually a false fruit. It's, it's, it's a stem that is actually swelled up into fruit. It's actually from the Amazon. It's not even from Guam. And that's what I find so fascinating that a fruit that came from Amazon guava has embraced and our people have embraced it in a way that the world has never known as and has never seen before. And so I don't use the word bank or bank, maybe I use it very so. So, yeah, so it is there is some casual tickets. So that's one of the things that we realized. So one of the things that the whole agenda experience is also about educating the people about the fruit. Yeah, about the plant about the tree. What's interesting about the leaves the leaves smell of raw mango and green guava give me so what's interesting is we got the casual from Brazil, and we made every penny out of it. But when I went to Brazil, I realized Kasasa is the national drink and look at them sugar. Interesting how sugar cane went from go to Brazil became their national drink they gave us as Kasasa the schedule became casual Fany here and we do nothing with it. We make we just have Ghana juice follows making sure we can do some crazy and they make Cal catches us there. That's all they do.

Clyde D'Souza  11:25  
Yeah, so not handsome. Can you tell me like when was the first time you had funny as a foster person who grew up you know, with your family in the business? What is your favorite family memory?

Unknown Speaker  11:34  
So you know, my my family memories that my grandfather was bring Feeny every time and Moira every evening, he would bring his family in the evening no matter what. Yeah, well, one coffee lovers glass were very long pants, were a small Banyan sit in the back. So that was what I remember. But what I actually remember tasting funny, was as a kid, we had the small factory, we it was a small unit. And we'd had all these bottling the Fany and stuff. And whenever I went and played in the afternoon, they would come and they'd give me a small goodie like a small capsule. And they would run catch me there was one girl, girl and I assume my My name is Sophia. I don't remember where she is. And I was to be able to catch me. Like, grab hold of me and just give me a shot of it. Now why did this happen? This is completely different. This is our culture. So alcohol is very ubiquitous with with our culture. And it's used as a tonic. And they believe that I mean, everyone believes that Feeny reduces the chance of getting stomach worms. And so, so she believes she was actually doing me good. She was giving me a small shot of Feeny Evita. And she No. She and I was indoctrinated. I was almost like Publix back in the day. But it was a nice way of actually, I hated it that time. I mean, any kid would not like me. Yes. So most people were introduced that when that is my two earliest memories of any?

Clyde D'Souza  12:58  
Yeah. Okay, well, now can you tell our listeners? What exactly is the taste of Feeny? What exactly. Is it so funny? Because for me, it's like a strong, pungent, nice, I can't, I can't really describe it any other way. So what is the taste of honey and why is it drank drunk in the monsoons? Why do guns love to drink it in the monsoons?

Unknown Speaker  13:16  
I've got 26 minutes to talk about, but I'll tell you very, very quickly. We have a culture and a cycle window. That's very interesting. So we'll start with we start with after the monsoon. So after the monsoons. What happens is the coconut toddy come the best time for coconut 30 is after monsoons September October, November, is when the trees produce the most amount of dairy. So we'll have drinks coconut feeling till Okay, so then after that by December, January, I'm making a conservers everyone drinks liquors it's it's cold in our climate, it's supposed to be a winter. It is not a winter compared to any other part of the world which is a tropical so we feel cold and so we need to have something like a coffee or a ginger because there was such a concern of a season and Christmas New Year every party okay Ling would serve that. Then you come to the hot season and the hot season you cannot drink. You cannot drink a hot drink you cannot drink something higher high in high percentage of alcohol. We drink something like so when the rest will drinks. Beer. We are drinking rock. Right? Yeah and also rock is like drink and I always say you know when rock season has got hit is when beer sales drop and Limca sales go up?

Clyde D'Souza  14:30  
Yeah Limca tan right.

Unknown Speaker  14:34  
What is what is most commonly mixed? If not always so beautiful. I love it. They are in the hot season you drink Toorak and then finally, of course it's the biggest time for coconut Tawny because it goes right to 30 production is less so nobody drinks, coconut drinking. The drinking cashew and the coconut taurine producers go into making vinegar. And then finally when it come the first day of the monsoon And this is a tradition the first day of the monsoon. All the buyers would say, That's it over class. Will they'll they'll put all the rock away. And then that's it. They'll put their Fini out. So the first rains when the rains fall, everyone is drinking their Fenian that is the culture Nobody drinks rock. After the first rains, you'd be looked down

Clyde D'Souza  15:21  
upon. I mean, you know you will be chastised. If you kind of, you know ask for rock as soon as the rains it, you'd be outcast.

Unknown Speaker  15:26  
Yeah, so everyone drinks casual. So it's interesting. They're drinking casual, immediately after casual season. So what actually is actually happening is that the farmers are getting a good, good price. But what happens when you're drinking casual after you're in the monsoons, the toddy production is is very good, but low in sugar. So you can't We can't produce that much. Coconut oil is low. It's very interesting how the drinking culture coincided with the local climate.

Clyde D'Souza  15:51  
Yeah, and the agriculture and all of that, basically, it sits in sync with that

Unknown Speaker  15:55  
in sync to that. So we had a whole drinking culture and, and you had different kinds of things. So there was no kind of individual drink. Whenever you wanted. You could drink whatever you like, whatever you asked

Clyde D'Souza  16:03  
for the season. Yes. Wow. Okay. That was yeah, that's nice. And I'm glad that we are having this conversation now because the monsoon is just about setting in and go especially. Great. Yeah. So now the next part of it is that what is the perception that Fendi needs to have? Is it like a celebratory drink? What is it?

Unknown Speaker  16:19  
No. So I think she every drink has its own niche, I think will be the will never be mainstream spirit. And we should never be a mainstream spirit. Because we cannot say she is the world's first. So we will be one of those drinks that will just be on the site will be on the sidelines. We had one drink that will just be you had a whiskey who had a workup. Have a feeling something. I don't want people to drink Feeny everyday because we don't produce that much drink. Maybe once a week or something. It's something like that. It's got that it's got an exoticness. There was a smaller state in Goa for this was the smallest speck on the west coast of India. Yeah. Taking a drink from the from a fruit that is from the Amazon in the restricted geographic area and a unique process that is what is fascinating. Now to answer your question, I believe finish should be the spring that you serve after your friends have left.

Clyde D'Souza  17:08  
The closest friends the closest right it's only to those select few. Yeah, that's a nice way to put it. Yeah. Now coming to you know, you also just want to you what you initially said that you know the vision that you had after your heart attack and everything where you you saw this thing in your head because you have a Zenda, which is basically called the cashew farm, right, which is the fruit to Fany dining experience, where you take people through this entire thing where you they taste funny, they see the funny cellar. And then there's lunch that has had at the at the bank of a river bed, if I'm not mistaken. So tell us a little bit about that. And what happens over there. What what do people you know, experience what

Unknown Speaker  17:48  
actually happened was I set up the fender. So we came out of my sickness and everything built up, the fuzziness, spent a lot of resource time, energy did everything. We did a few trial runs. And we were just ready for the first season in 2020. And bank we had we just went by and what do you do? You say to us, I think your corner. And you've got to think out of the box. Because now we created the whole finish cellar the where we get these to get people to sit inside and taste and we had gatherings of 50 people 60 People come in together. And we suddenly realize big gatherings cannot happen. We believe we suddenly realize people don't want to go into closed confined areas they wanted to be Yeah, what do you do? So I needed something spectacular. And then we had the spring we had a spring in the property. So we said okay, let's essentially, we don't have an air condition. So as a cheaper version of an air conditioner. We set up a table and I had experimented this with one before so the thing is when you talk about casual, even for a season casual drinker season casual eater, in any part of the world tell anyone to describe the smell and taste of cashew or describe the smell and taste of coconut it becomes very difficult. And if you ever been for a whiskey tasting or wine tasting about the first time I went they talked about gooseberries and blueberries and and cranberries and foreigners who come from the tropics. Gooseberry a blueberry and cranberry all look the same the only colors taste we don't know that the difference. And so my friend Alberto had come from a tasty and easy answer. You know what would be amazing? When you talk about the flavors of feeling if I if you said orange for example, and I could pick up an orange and smell an orange, that would be amazing. And when I say oh I see oh why don't I just do that so we don't do a lunch What do you do we set a table in the water one is because it is a body temperature down. You can smell and things better. So you have your feet bare feet on the water in gravel so getting your you're completely immersed, you're completely cool. It also bring normal sensors so we're taking control of you. When you're sitting in the water. Your attention is drawn to the platter in front of you the platter is set, which is it's again it's a platter that is designed, which has all the flavors of what couldn't drink. So all the flavors are gonna do what are they in your glass actually spread out on the platter. And it's, it's enough to fill you up. It's like what you do in the wine tasting but and so we go and taste the casual and the coconut and everything, and you get the flavors coming through. And you taste it was very interesting how it goes by?

Clyde D'Souza  20:24  
Yeah, no, I think it's a great experience. Now the other thing that I've noticed right away, especially about kazoo is that the first time I saw that bottle, it was very different, very well packaged, beautifully designed just the shape of the bottle itself. And then when I looked at it, I was like, Okay, this looks very, very international. Because we were just growing up, we were just used to two or three different types of venues that just honestly just came like in a plastic bottle. Right? And suddenly to see this beautifully designed, packaged glass bottle that just looks lovely on your shelf. I was like okay, well, this is great. And now GWA seems to be becoming this distillery brewery capital of India right, whether it's Paul John whiskey or greater than gin. So moving a little bit away now from from Feeny. What is your take on, on Goa becoming the distillery of brewing capital of India? And what has caught your interest? And what do you think about all of this?

Unknown Speaker  21:13  
I think it is just, I mean, it's great. I mean, Goa is this place, which has always been welcoming. We've always we were the first people to the first Europeans came to go, and this is even before the Portuguese, the first Europeans or the Turks. Yeah. So we had the Turks who came then we had the Portuguese come, and we've been this great confluence of ideas and people and stuff. So I'm great. I'm happy that it's, it's sparking such interesting ideas. It's always been this cauldron. How the question is how they look at it. I think it might be contentious, but I think a lot of them, not every one of them. A lot of them. Look at it very opportunistic. I don't think so they're there. Because of anything. They just been there because a lot of them are like acid places. They don't have to invest in a distillery. They don't have to invest in management, they can just like rally and

Clyde D'Souza  22:02  
slow capital. It's a low cap.

Unknown Speaker  22:06  
Yeah, and it was very easy. You can go to any other other part of India you'll ever meet the access Commissioner, let God or anybody walk up to the commissioner and talk and I think what's interesting, but guys, you can talk to them, you can they listen to you, they will be very forthcoming. They're nice people think people with money doesn't talk. It's you're the kind of person you and the ideas you have, I think is that we go facilities all this to happen. Again, I say not everyone is like that. But I think a lot of them are opportunistic, they're they're just there for the time, we will see in five years time and what's going to happen? Are they still going to be in Go? Are they going to move shop to another place? What's interesting, you place a few of these companies, the companies are not even based out of Goa they're based in, in Anglo or Delhi or some other place. They're not not based in Goa. So they just didn't production here. So yes, they celebrate the GWAS stories simply because it's easier to say go than to say to sell that Yeah. Easy to sell door. So it goes this international see goes the is has has been India's international destination for centuries. In Haryana, you can see some other place. Who don't. Yeah, who's gonna say my liquors come out of partner? You're gonna say, yeah, there's no story there are nightgown or someplace like, you're gonna say, say go? And so that's essentially what what has actually happened. Yeah, but interestingly enough, and I see I'm looking at very objectively, so there's no malice against anybody. But what this is actually done is, it's actually sparked a revolution, from a view of bringing the best of India's talent go, yeah, now, but it doesn't go you got the best food and drink and a lot of investment in go up. So you know, so yes, it has been good. It has been Yeah,

Clyde D'Souza  23:45  
that's the bright side of it, I guess, better mixologist and kind of the culinary, the community aspect also is kind of rising because of that.

Unknown Speaker  23:51  
So it's gonna shift to the whole focus from, from scattered all over the country. Now straight on to do so it's been a much, it's been good. It's given us that kick, where we to kind of kickstart this whole revolution and probably take go in a different direction. And it's brought me to the spotlight as well. So I mean, because for me, now, I have to I don't compete with someone in Delhi, or someone in Bangalore, or someone in Bombay, I'm competing with my fellows in Ghana. So for me, I'm fighting space. I'm fighting for Bambinos. I'm fighting for verticals. So I mean, it's interesting, I'm fighting for to be make fancy cocktails, as far as right. So it's an interesting place. And so I'm saying so it's a good thing as well. But I mean, sometimes what I what upsets me as a gun, sometimes it rubs off, and they when they tried when some of them not all of them, some of them, they talk arrogantly, but they only just for for the name and nothing else the opportunity

Clyde D'Souza  24:43  
I they kind of using it as a short sell, and let's let maybe we can just hope that some of them, you know, on the bright side of it, maybe they can look at the long term venture and the ecosystem basically building the ecosystem.

Unknown Speaker  24:55  
Yeah, very few of them live in or some of them have moved on to burn and that's a great sign but some of them don't. They will care about living their lives. Yeah, just just the end to the right. So that's it. Yeah,

Clyde D'Souza  25:04  
right. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. That's an interesting take. I didn't think of it from that perspective. But I think when when person just sees it, someone who's a tourist and he sees all of these things, he doesn't know this backstory of it. He's just looking at it as a he thinks that it's it's something from Guam that it's originated in gua let us know the backstory. Yeah, let

Unknown Speaker  25:21  
me tell you, Indians are the best at selling anything. The top CEOs of the world today are Indians, because we can sell anything and everything. Jar. We can sell everything. We sell the most amount of whiskey, we sell. I mean, so so we are great at selling everything. We sell scotch, we sell champagne, we sell everything, but we cannot sell our own products. So that's what actually happens. We need to now start selling our own product. Now to answer the question, which you asked me about packaging. When I first this was a good question. This thing that happened to me when I was in Tonga, I was I was jealous that I went on a holiday to Tonga, small island in the Pacific. And I suddenly saw this. They were selling coconut oil, shabby bottle plastic bottle. And that immediately took me back to Booyah. Everyone drank scotch, you had a nice bottle of whiskey. And you always kept that Fini in a plastic Sprite or Coke bottle bottle inside. And for me that immediately hit and I said no, we have to change this. So I saw over a long period, I came up with this whole packaging, and I wanted it to be international. And the first question I got from everyone was, have you done too much? This is too fancy for go and we'll go and buy it. And I was like, damn, well, they should. So this is what it is. Whatever price it at that time it was 500 rupees 510 was a was a lot of money for Feeny

Clyde D'Souza  26:39  
people might think you got mad like, especially the locals.

Unknown Speaker  26:43  
Much I didn't get any 400 rupees rupees. But for me, I gave at least at that time, I gave the people an opportunity to say yes, we've got a Fany that looks International and you can be proud of and you don't have to keep it in a plastic bottle. You can you keep a castle a bottle and said that. But you know, we want to be the bottle shape was was was specifically chosen. It's an old gin bottle. And if you know that, during the Napoleonic Wars, the Portuguese got really scared. And they wanted the Indian to go out to be protected. So they asked the British to come and protect. And that's why the British soldiers stationed in Goa for about five years. And they drank a lot of gin and they left a lot of gin bottles into and so what happened we saw a stood Fenian girl caravan, but we put it into small gin bottles called puka bottles, and they kept them at home. That's why we have a British cemetery in Dona Paulo. And if you heard of it, okay, yeah, yes, everyone wonders, why do we have a British cemetery, but it was because of that. But what happened was the British left, and then we had the bottles, and we scored in them. So for a lot of guns, that garrafa was the storage bottle. And the gin bottle, which is the Casilla shaped bottle was actually the bottle that we put feigning out for your daily use.

Clyde D'Souza  27:59  
So that's interesting. So the shape of this bottle actually comes from the gym.

Unknown Speaker  28:03  
Yeah, so we wanted we wanted to be we wanted to be an authentic representation of what we are who we are. So there's not something I just pulled out of the air we had a ship, if you look at the colors are very different colors, the red color, the green color, we use the motifs the word casual, or we were the one of the first brands to use the company name, because it was a company of Firefly, which means the warming glow when you drink Fini in your chest is just like the glow. So we use company names back then. And things like company name, they will take a casual name they want to English knew it was a interesting journey. But we came up with the product in the end.

Clyde D'Souza  28:41  
Yeah, no, I'm glad you stuck to your guns and therefore we have this beautiful ring that I'm holding in my hand and now it's the last step of it. So maybe it's time for a refill after that. But right now I want to move on to my next segment. Okay, so which is the segment that a lot of the listeners on this podcast right Hansel are saying that they want they like this segment because it seems like a desert. It's like a slice of the brink after the main call. So that's how I like to look at it. So yeah, now on to my cigar secret segment. Okay, so the cigar secret is basically where you just tell me what brings you to your happy place and what is yours to say God's secret?

Unknown Speaker  29:14  
My secret secrets, I think, I think that my whole family knows. I need to have my own time. So for my my second secret is every afternoon no matter what, I need to take a siesta. My office knows it. My staff knows it. My everybody knows that my wife knows it. Everyone knows it's at one period in time where I'm not necessarily sleeping. But it's a contemplative time where I think I'm probably just I switched off from everything and that's what I need a dark room. Just just come down. Just brings yours and then I'm ready.

Clyde D'Souza  29:47  
recharge your batteries. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  29:49  
I think has not been a know what I what I would have would have done

Clyde D'Souza  29:53  
great failure. I mean, a lot of people don't know this, but it's it's really helpful. Yeah. Okay, now my next question and one of my guests Maybe I guess you know him publisher, Frederick neurona. The question is basically what is the meaning of love? And he said, that love is a chemical which I was like, Okay, well, so now since you're someone who deals with spirits, right? What is the meaning of love to you?

Unknown Speaker  30:14  
And so I think what? My teacher in college I was I sardines, and David is blind. cockeyed and dumb. Makes you makes you do something and I think that's what very much it is. I mean, when you fall in love with something, it can you go head over heels and there's nothing to explain. It's so intangible. It's so deep, that it can give you this energy that can take you much further.

Clyde D'Souza  30:40  
Super. Okay, great. So this stops the love is a chemical. Alright, my next segment again, it's a rapid fire segment. It's fun. I've dubbed it. The ouzo round. So it's called those are also means fire for Yeah, it was. Alright, so yeah. So yeah, five quick questions with one word answers. Alright, so here we go. If you can expand what liquor not necessarily funny, would you want to create next

Unknown Speaker  31:13  
and make an Amaro, okay, what's that? Amaro is like a it's like a bitter drink herbal, bitter. Rick like Jaeger Meister, or, or fernet Branca or chartreuse.

Clyde D'Souza  31:26  
Okay. Any particular herb or any particular herb?

Unknown Speaker  31:29  
No. So I believe we want to be in the tropics. And we have so much so many interesting ingredients. And we I mean, we definitely should make an amount

Clyde D'Souza  31:37  
of okay, I'm looking forward to that. Wow. All right. What food dish goes best with Feeny, according to you?

Unknown Speaker  31:45  
With casual Fany it's a nice fruit salad, good fruit and a lot of pineapple. It really is juries?

Clyde D'Souza  31:51  
Oh, okay. Interesting. All right. So this is a interesting question. Your favorite drinking buddy.

Unknown Speaker  32:00  
So one of my three drinking buddies, Melvin. Melvin pays and awkward Orville and Alberto. They've been playing with Frank soda back in the day now with anything, but isn't like this everyone printing to get salute

Clyde D'Souza  32:16  
to them? And yeah, wow, great. All right. Now, like a lot of people are starting to make dishes out of a certain product, right? Like Lego will take an order you and then make a milkshake or a fit. Or they'll make naggy pakodas. Right. So now if you have to think out of the box and make a funny cocktail with using some other food product or something like that, then what do you think that could be? In like, an out of the box venue?

Unknown Speaker  32:40  
Yeah, so I think we, I mean, we did it an excellent way. It's one of our most celebrated cocktails is the portfolio. So portfolio is this quintessential go and dessert separately. On which I agree. Yeah, you put a coconut rice or rice paste, and then you put juggling and then you steam you seal it and steam. It's got this beautiful flavor. So we deconstructed this cocktail, and we made it with go with infinity. So we use coconut Fany we use coconut milk. We use jaggery syrup. And we took turmeric leaf extract. We made this beautiful cocktail. I think that's gonna be the Fini cocktail that will crack open the world. It's gonna be the cocktail that's going to be the tip of the spear when we go into nationals.

Clyde D'Souza  33:20  
Wow, I mean, I'm that just sounds so great. Because I've had patio and I've had finished separately. Yeah, I'm just wondering whether I need to just dip the patio into my venue and try it because what you just said is too complicated for me to do.

Unknown Speaker  33:32  
It's very complicated and very, very complicated. Like drinking an alcoholic version of the bottle. It's amazing. It's I think it's the best cocktail we've ever made. superhuman effort by the team. Yeah, I think it's great. There was a young bartender called Rowan Barbosa who invented it, but he didn't use it use use the vodka. So we saw I told him, can you use a book companion? And he was not sure if he had to ask permission from his mentor. Should I use housing, you go campaigning, and then we use it. And the next next thing is history. Yeah,

Clyde D'Souza  34:04  
boom. Yeah. So where can someone taste this? If someone wants to have a party, only two places

Unknown Speaker  34:08  
one is BB zero that way maybe service regularly on the menu. It's part of the benefit one of the drinks on the menu. And the other one is as a presenter, we sell these drinks to places are allowing you to drink. There's nothing like it

Clyde D'Souza  34:20  
is lovely. Okay, my next question is we'll end with the favorite company phrase and an example of it. What is your favorite company face?

Unknown Speaker  34:30  
My favorite comes from cockney praises Catherine budget. It's it's one of those famous lines of a Korea.

Clyde D'Souza  34:38  
Yes, yes. I've mentioned it in my book. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  34:42  
So we saw in one of those places that I think as hell fast people a long time. I

Clyde D'Souza  34:51  
tell us what it means. Tell us what tell them. I'll tell my listeners what Kathuria budget means

Unknown Speaker  34:54  
inquiry literally means custom, custom vegetable. That's the budget.

Clyde D'Souza  34:58  
That the budget which is get on with it right? That's the Get on with it. Be bold, be steadfast. Yes. Yes. Be confident and move ahead, do what you have to do. Yeah. So

Unknown Speaker  35:08  
So it's one of those lines, that has helped me and, and I'm not as confident. I mean, I'm, I'm a shy guy in many ways. I'm also confidence you develop over time. So I've always been nervous many times in my life. And so I've always used this line. If I put my best out as a specific category, but you can do it, but you just do it.

Clyde D'Souza  35:27  
Go do it. Yeah. Which is what? I told him when he had to give a speech, right? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  35:33  
I always say, and just go ahead and give your speech. Just do whatever. You have to be

Clyde D'Souza  35:37  
good. You have to be confident and do what you have to do. Lovely. What a way to end this beautiful conversation that we've had. Hansel, I could like, listen to you for hours. And I'm glad we had such a nice deep fun, you know, invigorating conversation over a drink.

Unknown Speaker  35:53  
Yeah, very interesting. My first podcast, by the way, so

Clyde D'Souza  35:57  
I'm happy that you enjoyed it. And yeah, it was great. And thank you for being so passionate about funny seeing the light and doing everything that you're doing, and becoming one of God's greatest ambassadors and storytellers for fenny across the world, and it was fun to talk to you a couple of years back and it's fun to talk to you again and I'm hoping to see you soon I haven't you haven't met which is great to meet you at Fazenda cazuela soon thank you for coming on to seek out stories from your podcast I hope we can do another one soon with more of your expressions and different types of funny and Hansel always end with saying these two words to everyone so yeah, thank you for coming to the podcast and Moga sunny world so Yeah. Guys, I hope you enjoyed this heady conversation on GWAS much love drink. Please try it the next time you're in GWA and keep listening and subscribe to cigar stories from our podcast we have you bring you some more amazing guests like cancer thank you and Maga Sweeney.

Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoyed this episode of say God stories from go on. Do subscribe if you're a new listener and join a community of people who love and live the golden lifestyle. Again, I'm Clyde de Souza and for more go and content you can follow me on Instagram at Clyde D'souza author. This podcast is brought to you by bound a company that helps you grow through stories, follow them and bound India on all social platforms for updates on this podcast or take a look at their other podcasts, Maga Sunni and see you soon