When you hear the phrase “Indian craft spirit,” your mind usually wanders towards gin, perhaps rum, and on more experimental days, maybe even feni. But a 100 percent agave spirit? That’s a curveball most Indian drinkers didn’t see coming. And yet, Maya Pistola Agavepura, India’s homegrown agave spirit brand, has managed to sweep into the scene with confidence, strategy, and a story worth being told.
So when unsobered got the opportunity to speak with its Founder and Managing Director, Rakshay Dhariwal, and Director and Co-Founder Radhika Dhariwal, we delved into unheard stories, the behind-the-scenes of the brand, and what makes it so quintessentially Indian.
Pass Code Hospitality – the umbrella under which the two have built some of India’s most beloved restaurants and bars – had always been rooted in experience-driven hospitality. But when the pandemic hit and shutters came down, they were forced to ask; now what?
Instead of waiting out the storm, they started selling spirits through their restaurants. Rakshay shared with us that he noticed consumers initially gravitating towards the more common beer and whisky. But soon the tides began taking a different turn – more and more people started noticing agave spirits. It wasn’t a fleeting trend, it was a subtle yet unmistakable shift that paved the way for the entrepreneur duo to build their own product. The journey was about to be challenging, but they were ready for it.
Rakshay mentioned how he took a few courses, learned the craft of making agave spirits, which would eventually become India’s first aged 100% agave spirit.
Maya Pistola Agavepura is made using 100% wild Agave Americana which grows abundantly in the Deccan region. However, Rakshay shared an interesting anecdote from the past which explains how this plant came to be in this region. The plant’s origin story in India can be traced back to colonial times.
When the British expanded the railways across the length and breadth of the country, they started facing a major problem. Livestock from villages near these train tracks would get hit by passing trains, concerning villagers.
Fencing the tracks, a fairly logical solution, was an expensive affair, so they had to work their way around for an economical solution – planting agave. These acted as natural barricades along long stretches of railway tracks. Over time, these hardy plants took root in the soil, multiplying in numbers across the Deccan, and waiting for years for their moment of purpose. That purpose arrived with Maya Pistola.
When Maya Pistola launched in 2022, it carried a bold title: India’s first premium aged 100% agave spirit. A title that came with responsibility and a whole lot of challenges.
Agave wasn’t a particularly familiar category for Indian drinkers. Most consumers who believed they ‘knew’ agave were unknowingly consuming 51 per cent agave spirits bombarded with sugars and additives. That was not pure agave spirit. The hangovers caused due to such low-quality agave spirits only added to its infamous reputation.
Maya Pistola was firm on providing a pure, 100% agave spirit to consumers which is safe from misconceptions and approachable to Indians. That’s how the term ‘Agavepura’ came to be – as a nod to the 100 per cent purity of this spirit.
No story is complete without adversities, and Maya Pistola had one forged in literal flames, as shared by Rakshay in a thrilling anecdote.
It was during Christmas 2021 that their maturation area in the distillery caught fire. For many, it would have been a devastating blow, but Maya Pistola rose like a phoenix.
Challenges didn’t end there. Rakshay also shared how the initial design of the bottle, though visually appealing, did not fit the memo. Despite spending a considerable amount of resources and efforts on creating a specially made mold, it did not align with the identity they wanted.
Radhika also shed light on one more challenge they face – navigating India’s ever-evolving excise policies. Processing label registration fee hikes and dealing with non-cooperative states proved to be a labyrinth of big and small challenges.
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What’s striking about Maya Pistola Agavepura is that the products aren’t the only stars, what drives conversations is also the incredible brand building. Take a look at the Indianized myth of Maya Pistola, a character inspired by the Mayahuel, the Mexican goddess associated with the agave plant.
As Radhika shared with us, these little details – be it the mythical story tied to the brand, the design elements, or even the packaging – all play a crucial role in its success and identity. Rooted in Indian heritage yet global in its approach, that’s what Maya Pistola Agavepura the champion of.
When we asked both Radhika and Rakshay about some of the most fascinating threads in the brand’s fabric, this is how they described it:
Rakshay described a few of the expressions with unfiltered affection:
On the other hand, Radhika recalled her fondest memory about the product’s journey, stating a moment from the Covid lockdown. She narrated to us the joy of tasting the agave spirit for the first time in Mumbai when she flew down from Dubai to meet Rakshay. Her face bloomed into a smile as she recalled how the experience felt surreal – a moment she still looks back to with great fondness.
Moving on, we asked them what foods pair well with the different expressions of Maya Pistola Agavepura. And here’s their recommended food pairings;
It’s the sort of pairing that nudges seasoned enthusiasts into new, delicious experiments and encourages beginners to explore the world of Maya Pistola Agavepura.
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Sometimes, the smallest questions reveal the most personality. So when we asked the duo to describe the spirit in three words, they revealed their answers:
The brand is reaching new heights, and Rakshay and Radhika were overjoyed to share with us that their signature Reposado had won the coveted ‘Spirit of the Year - India’ at the USA Spirits Ratings 2025. With the brand aiming for higher milestones, they have also launched in the UK through The Whisky Exchange, one of the world’s most respected spirits retailers. Close home, it is eyeing to make Chandigarh the next stop on their India expansion roadmap.
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India, for the longest time, had not seen the courage to build something unfamiliar, something untested, and something that relied on a tried-and-tested blueprint. With Maya Pistola, it is changing. The brand is proving that India can, in fact, make a 100 per cent pure agave spirit using ingredients found in its own soil. It proves that agave spirits need not belong to Mexico alone, they can thrive equally well in India. To sum it up, Maya Pistola is a homegrown spirit with a global heartbeat and a uniquely Indian soul.
