New Delhi, April 17 -- On a warm March afternoon in north Goa, Nimish Gupta settled down at a taverna to try some urraca, the cashew drink that has come to define summers in the sunshine state. The 52-year-old software developer from Bengaluru has been visiting Goa for the past 15 years, and knows his way around with the local life.

"It tasted off. I usually prefer drinking at tavernas because they know their drink and there's a certain thrill of having it as the locals do, and that is without adding any soda, chillies or Limca," says Gupta, who was in Goa last month.

Beloved for its refreshing cashew flavour in the peak of summer, urraca today has become a victim of its own success. For the uninitiated, urraca is the first distillate o...