Mustang Orchard Icon · Distilled Apple Brandy
Marpha Apple Brandy
Photo: Sukinsun / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
It comes from a village whose name is said to combine 'mar' (hardworking) and 'pha' (people) — apt for a settlement that turned a dry, 2,500-meter valley into Nepal's unofficial apple capital.
Marpha brandy is distilled from apples grown in the terraced orchards of Marpha village, in the high, dry Kali Gandaki valley, producing a clear, fruity spirit alongside the village's well-known apple jams and dried apple rings. It's sold and poured in guesthouses and shops along the Annapurna Circuit trekking route that runs straight through the village.
Why it's made this way: Marpha's cool, semi-arid climate at altitude turned out to be ideal apple-growing country, and the Thakali community there built an entire local economy — brandy, jam and dried fruit — around that one crop.
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