Toddy is a Keralan specialty; it is also called palm wine. An alcoholic drink made from the fermented sap of a coconut palm tree.
This sap is collected by a ‘toddy tapper’, who sells it to people who further process it and who serve it to clients (from jerrycans).
The collecting of the sap is quite a process. ‘Our’ toddy tapper, e.g. gathers sap from 15 trees. The trees get a cut, a earthenware pot is placed on that, the tapper has his tools and does his daily rounds along his trees.
This sap is collected by a ‘toddy tapper’, who sells it to people who further process it and who serve it to clients (from jerrycans).
The collecting of the sap is quite a process. ‘Our’ toddy tapper, e.g. gathers sap from 15 trees. The trees get a cut, a earthenware pot is placed on that, the tapper has his tools and does his daily rounds along his trees.
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| We can see the pot, sitting on top of the cut branch. |
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| The toddy tapper with his tools and collecting pot. |
These rounds involve that he climbs in each tree to the ‘cut’ that has been made, he ‘drums’ the stem of the tree, to make the vibrations reach the roots and to make the sap thus come up in the tree. The sap that has come into the pot is collected, the ‘cut’ has to be maintained, etc.
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| Over poring from permanent pot in his ‘transport’ pot. |
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| A bit of chopping here and there |
The collected toddy is not yet fermented, so not alcoholic yet. We tasted it, fresh from the tree. It was sweet and luke warm (from the sun on the tree, I guess?). We have not tasted the final product.
Have you tasted toddy? The alcoholic stuff? How was it? Did you like it?
I have had a sip of the toddy but didn’t like. Yes you can get drunk on it.
Oh, I am sure you can, Shalu! Thanks for stopping by and for leaving a comment. Hope to see you here more often;-)