Third Eye Distillery’s newest product – Short Story wants to cut through the noise and let the spirits do the talking.
Once upon a time, every new homegrown spirit had a story. It was a story of ingredients, their organic nature, and their place of origin. It was a tale of discovery and happenstance that led to their creation. These were stories that helped to sell the spirit and help consumers look at the bigger picture.
Third Eye Distillery (TED) wants to go back to a time before these stories took focus away from the actual spirit. Enter Short Story, a new portfolio of ‘go-to’ spirits from the company that gave us Stranger & Sons gin.
Short Story launched in September with a gin, vodka, and rum.
They are attempting to fill the need for ‘quality, dependable spirits beyond just premium gins’ and create a brand that cuts through the noise. “We want to go against the tide of romanticising ingredients and processes, and let our spirits do the talking instead. Whilst we may not incessantly talk about the process of creating the liquids, all the information one may need is in plain sight—on the back label, where we believe it belongs,” says Pankaj Balachandran, Brand Director, Short Story.
“We want to go against the tide of romanticising ingredients and processes, and let our spirits do the talking instead. Whilst we may not incessantly talk about the process of creating the liquids, all the information one may need is in plain sight—on the back label, where we believe it belongs,”
Pankaj Balachandran, Brand Director, Short Story
The name for the brand came from the idea: Keeping the narrative short. Instead of giving consumers an elaborate story on the process and ingredients, they want the spirits to shine.
Their vodka is triple-distilled, and charcoal filtered, which allows for clarity and better expression of the grain. “Our aim with the vodka was to land with a spirit that is robust, clean, and well-rounded and can compete with some of the most established brands out there with much higher price points simply because they’re imported,” says Balachandran.
Short Story gin is a classic, pot-distilled London dry gin balanced with 11 botanicals (juniper, coriander, bitter orange, lemon, grapefruit, cubeb berries, long pepper, angelica, hazelnut, black cardamom and star anise). It has a fresh juniper and citrus backbone, and works well in a gin and tonic, and martinis.
The rum is what challenged the master blender in Balachandran. “In its heart, it was built to be a great representation of Caribbean rum. We achieved this by blending Indian molasses rum with three different rums from that region — a high ester Jamaican rum, balanced with a touch of a cask aged Dominican & Trinidadian rum,” he says. On the nose, it has tropical grassy notes and a long and complex finish. “It’s made to handle anything you throw its way whether it’s your Daiquiris or just an easy Cuba Libre.”
Each spirit has been made to ensure they can be consumed on their own as well as in a cocktail. Balachandran says they make refreshing highballs as well as classics.
Short Story’s bottles have a simple design, with different colours and punctuation marks. “Our minimalistic approach to the design and packaging is with the intention of championing our spirits. The punctuations are a reflection of our clear mindedness in terms of creating quality, true to style spirits without any drama and antics,” says Balachandran.
Interestingly, when Stranger & Sons launched, they did focus on telling a story about the ingredients and the distillation process and more. Why the change now? “The vision of Third Eye Distillery was to have a number of consumer-facing brands under its umbrella, each with a consciously different identity, ethos and voice.”
Short Story is selling a story without telling you one. It’s now up to customers to read it.
Short Story is available in Goa — priced at Rs 1050; Karnataka at Rs 1950 and in Maharashtra: Vodka — Rs 1650, Gin — Rs 1850, and Rum — Rs 1950. Instagram