“All About Alcohol”, a five-room museum, spread across 13,000 sq ft a property situated at Candolim for showcasing Goan History and culture, has the local drink “Feni” at it’s core. The museum purports to document how feni, distilled from fermented cashew apples, is produced, transported, and consumed over centuries. The museum dedicated to the “art of drinking”, It is businessman and collector Nandan Kudchadkar’s latest venture
“To me, Feni is an ode to my motherland,” the businessman informs. Thousands of multi-coloured garrafões (large-bellied glass bottles), used to hold the spirit are decorating the walls. The museum has its own cellar for housing cashew and coconut feni dating back to the 1950s. At this museum, Kudchadkar intends shift the spotlight from the drink to focus on the story behind it instead.
Conducted by Goa native Armando Duarte, the museum tour takes 30-minutes at the end of which visitors can sample some feni cocktails, prepared by in-house mixologist Lionel Gomes.
The museum displays an impressive collection of alcohol-related paraphernalia. A measuring equipment from the 16th century , a rare crystal beer horn sourced from Russia, an antique wooden shot dispenser, ancient mud pots, beakers, and glassware from across the globe are some of the wares, handpicked from Kudchadkar’s personal collection. Yet he “What you see here is not even a fifth of what I have,” says In the next month, he plans to add five more rooms to the museum and add more gems from his collection.
The objective of the museum-maker is to change perception of people about Goans as perpetually drunk as typecast in Bollywood films. We wish to show you the beauty of sipping a drink from a glass made in the 1500s and We will inform you how some of the finest glass factories of past were destroyed.” He says.
