Southern Indian Heritage Spirits are seeing a boon and with that will come some confusion over differences and definitions. Arrack (and arak, urrack, arraqu, etc) is a common word seen on many labels. For our purposes, we focus on Arrack from Sri Lanka. The more widespread Batavia Arrack from Indonesia is made from sugarcane and rice, whereas we are talking about a spirit made from the fermented palm sap of the coconut tree.
What Is Toddy?
Collected for thousands of years, this palm wine goes by the Tamil word kallu, but the English “Toddy” (likely adultered Hindi tāṛī for fermented palm sap) is now the general parlance. But before we get to defining any more terms, let’s get into the coconut palm, which is not even a tree!
Palms are monocots, meaning they are more closely related to grasses than maples. Think of a palm as a relative to bamboo — it grows fast, sturdy, and tall, but there are no growth rings nor any bark to cover it. At around 5 years-old, a palm will start to flower, and these flowers will eventually turn into fruit. Coconuts start as these clusters of tiny flowers called an inflorescence. These grow in the canopy of the palm, sheathed in a protective spathe that encases the delicate flowers until they are ready to bloom.
Meet the Toddy Tapper
Enter the Toddy Tapper. These skillful daredevils climb the palms, 100 feet or higher, to reach the canopy. When the inflorescence has grown and extended, but before it opens to expose the flowers, the Toddy Tapper binds the spathe shut, wrapping it tightly so it may not open. Over the course of several days, the Toddy Tapper will climb into the canopy, tapping on the spathe to encourage the palm to start sending its nectar. Once the sap begins to flow from the flowers, the end of the spathe is cut and a pot hung over the opening to collect it, drop by drop.
There is no season for Toddy. Once the nectar is flowing, the Toddy Tapper must climb into the canopy every day to empty the pot of already-fermenting sap into their own container lashed around their waist. They must also maintain the cut spathe, keeping it clean and open so that the palm will continue to send sap up through the flowers into the waiting pot. There are no vacation days, no time away from the palms, lest the source dry up forcing them to start all over when the palm flowers again.
From Sap to Spirit
Now that we have the palm sap, there are many different directions the Toddy Tapper can take. Toddy is used as a leavener to raise rice cakes or bread, it can be let to go acetic and become vinegar — the traditional base of vindaloo, it can be boiled down into an unrefined sugar known as jaggery, or it can be distilled into liquor.
What Is Feni?
Feni (also Fenny) is a Konkani word meaning “froth,” referring to the lacy bubbles of a high-proof spirit. For a spirit to be called Coconut Feni, it must be distilled Coconut Sap in the geographical limit of the state of Goa in Southwest India. Feni can only come from Goa in the same way that Tequila can only come from Mexico or Bourbon from the United States. Feni is distilled in pot stills. It is enjoyed unaged, either mixing into drinks or infusing with local botanicals like dukshiri.
What Is Arrack?
Arrack is an Arabic word that means “sweat” or “juice” and the term quickly spread through South India as a catchall phrase for liquor. To this point, in Goa, the 1st distillation of Cashew Feni is called Urrack. Ceylon Arrack, also made from Coconut Sap, is quite literally ‘liquor made in Ceylon’ — the British name for the isle of Sri Lanka. Arrack can be made in pot or column stills or be blends of the two. Arrack can be aged in wood barrels, creating a deep, golden spirit.