The spirit of Goa

Ervell E. Menezes on what makes feni, the heady Goan brew, so special

Women from a Goa village separate the seeds of the cashew before the fruit is crushed and the juice is extracted for the distilling of the feni
Women from a Goa village separate the seeds of the cashew before the fruit is crushed and the juice is extracted for the distilling of the feni;

The three-day-old extracted juice is poured into a large mud and brass batti and a fire is then lit below it
The three-day-old extracted juice is poured into a large mud and brass batti and a fire is then lit below it. The juices are distilled to obtain cashew feni.
— Photos by S. Gasper D’Souza

GOA today is known as the land of fish, feni and football, not necessarily in that order. With man’s early romance with Bacchus, feni may well get top billing. Feni (whether caju or coconut) is a quaint, exotic spirit that wafts through the Goan air and is as much sought after as tequila in Mexico or chasasa in Brazil. One must acquire a taste for it. Like caviar.

The caju (cashewnut) variety has a terrible stink but caju or cajel, as it is known in Goa, is not the same without the smell. The coconut variety, marel or maad, is milder and is consumed mostly in South Goa. Coconut feni is popular in most parts of India.

It is the Portuguese who first brought the caju apple to India from Brazil in the 16th century. Tipplers opt for the caju apple whose juice is fermented for three days and then distilled thrice. The first distillation is called urac and is a summer drink, the second is cazulo, which is a milder feni, and the third is the real thing, feni or cajel or caju.

The cashew apple (anacardium occidentale) is grown abundantly on the hillsides and the kazkar is the one who takes these cashew plantations on hire and distills the wonder liquor. The talukas of Sattari, Ponda, Pernem, Sanguem, Siolim and Bicholim are particularly known for the good quality of feni they produce.

The cashew apples, hundreds of them, were put under a heavy stone and the juice or niro trickled out into a rock-like cavity where a coti or coconut shell was left handy for anyone passing by to quench his thirst. For us, it was also the first taste of adulthood

The first distillation is urac, or the summer drink. This is sold only in April and May and if there is a greater demand for it the quantum of feni will be so much less. The urac, which is to be made into feni, is allowed to cool for a day and then mixed with four kolse’s (containers) of fresh cashew juice and then heated again for over five hours. When it reaches a strength of 15 graos you get cazulo but when it is further concentrated to 18 graos you get cazulo, which is often sold as the finished product feni. It is only after 18 graos that one gets feni and the strongest feni is 20 to 22 graos. But remember graos and ‘proof’ (for whisky) are not the same measures. At times, feni manufacturers are known to add pure alcohol to increase its strength but they aren’t likely to admit it. A kolso (20 bottles) of feni costs Rs 600 (from the kazkar) at normal times but varies with the yield of the crop. But the commercial sale of feni is almost double this.

Madhukar Kambli, or Mollu, as he is known to those in Carrem wado of Succor village in Bardez, swears by the purity of his liquor but it is hard work. "The peacocks begin mewing at 3 am and that’s when we wake up to pluck the fruit," he says and if one is lucky one can witness the peacock dance as a bonus. The plucking and distilling operations take place in February and March with the season tapering off by April-end. The entire family of the kazkars virtually camps on the hills in palm-thatched huts. It is before returning to their homes that they celebrate their outing with a delicious chicken preparation called xacuti, now very much part of the Goan cuisine, and served in five-star hotels too.

The birth of a child is cheered with feni, a death in the family is also mourned with feni. It is considered by many as the cure for depression and stomach aches. It is still given a country liquor status and that is hard to comprehend. Most country liquors in India are distilled only once. It is alleged the Indian-made foreign liquor lobby sees it as a threat to their business or may be it isn’t marketed as strongly.

Valentino Vaz, chairman of Madame Roza Distillers, and one of the pioneers in packaging feni attractively since the 1980s, is working on getting that status.

There are umpteen brands of feni from Real to Lobos to Cajulana and all profess to be the real thing. But whatever the manufacturers claim the demand for feni far exceeds its supply and hence some of it is made with the flavour of cashew, not the real thing. Which brings us to the inevitable question. Where does one get the "right stuff" ?

The bottled stuff is often dicey but if one has a good equation with the kazkar it might just work. A good feni is one that does not burn the throat as it goes down. It must be smooth. A good tip is to keep it for at least a year. It matures in wooden casks but time improves it even in bottles. And the nasha one gets after a "good drink of feni" is supreme and just cannot be replicated. But one must learn to enjoy it, not be a martyr to it.

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