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Alcoholic drinks from Ilocos, Luzon, Philippines

Basi (Ilocano sugarcane wine)basi

Basi is the sugarcane wine of the Ilocos region. Fresh cane juice is boiled with samak bark and leaves, cooled in burnay stoneware jars, started with parek, and left sealed for months. The method is not standardised and varies from maker to maker.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Basi itself.

DocumentedAlcoholic drinks2 months

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedHousehold and village process with no fixed amounts; no tested recipe was found.
Sugarcane juice[WP:Philippine wine]
Samak bark and leavesThe bark colours the juice[WP:Philippine wine]
Parek starterCane juice mixed with samak fruit and leaves[WP:Philippine wine]
Starterother: parek (cane juice mixed with samak fruit and leaves)

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 months

Start
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What changes: Cane juice boils with samak bark and leaves and is skimmed

Step 1 of 3
Boil cane juice with samak bark, then samak leaves, and skim
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: cooked cane juice.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
bark colours the juice

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Basi is the sugarcane wine of the Ilocos region. Fresh cane juice is boiled with samak bark and leaves, cooled in burnay stoneware jars, started with parek, and left sealed for months. The method is not standardised and varies from maker to maker. Made in 3 steps over 2 months. The longest step, add parek, cover with samak leaves and seal or bury the jar, takes at least 2 months (Wikipedia).

Key numbers
Main stepat least 2 monthsReported[WP:Philippine wine][wp-basi]Add parek, cover with samak leaves and seal or bury the jar

What makes this one different

Basi is a wine of fresh sugarcane juice, not a grain beer or a palm toddy. The juice is boiled first, with samak bark for colour, and fermented slowly in stoneware jars for months.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Ilocos Sur basiThe cooked juice is stored in jars with the barks or leaves for months (industry study, seen only in a search summary).

Safety

No sourced safety values were found for basi.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The Spanish colonial government held a monopoly on basi that made producers sell at a low official price. The Basi Revolt against it began on 16 September 1807 in Piddig and lasted 13 days. The government then divided Ilocos into Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur (Wikipedia).

  1. [WP:Philippine wine] Wikipedia, Philippine wine (outline only)wiki
  2. [wp-basi] Wikipedia, Basi (outline only)wiki
  3. [s2] Gregorio et al., University of the Philippines Diliman, headspace GC-FID study of lambanog, tapuy, basi and tuba, Philippine Journal of Science 149(3a) (seen only in a search summary; the PDF was behind a 403 block)other