The Rice Whiskey Revolution: Reviving a Thousand-Year Himalayan Heritage with Kashish Shrestha
26 min
The Rice Whiskey Revolution: Reviving a Thousand-Year Himalayan Heritage with Kashish Shrestha
The Rolex Whisky Passion Project
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Kashish Shrestha , founder and CEO of the Nepali Spirit Company , joins the show to share the journey of bringing Nepal’s ancient distilling traditions to the global stage. Shrestha discusses his transition from a high-end whiskey collector and auction regular to a craft distiller based in California, producing traditional rice spirits out of Florida. He provides a deep dive into the cultural history of Aila —a spirit used in Nepali rituals for centuries—and explains how he is evolving the craft by introducing wood-aging through Amburana, Mizunara, and Sherry casks . From the fire-like profile of traditional rice whiskey to his upcoming Himalayan espresso liqueur , Shrestha highlights the bold future of the first international Nepali rice whiskey brand.
Transcript
5,125 words(en)
Welcome back, everybody, to another fun edition of the Rolex Whiskey Passion Project. Pretty excited to hear this gentleman today. You know, he's been following Rolex Whiskey for a while. He— we, we chat every now and again, but I kind of wanted to hear more about what he has going on.
It's a pretty unique Um, to me at least, you know, uh, whiskey experience. So Kashish, welcome to the show, my friend. How are you? Hey Gavin, thanks so much for having us on air.
No worries, my man. You wanna introduce yourself to the listeners? Tell 'em a little bit who you are and stuff. My name is Kashish.
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