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Alcoholic drinks from Goa, India

Cashew feni (caju feni)fenni

Cashew feni is Goa's spirit distilled from the fermented juice of cashew apples. Fallen ripe apples are stomped or pressed, and the juice ferments wild for two or three days until the froth stops; a first distillation gives the weaker urrak, and a second, with fresh fermented juice added, gives feni of about 42–43 % alcohol. The juice ferment is the fermented step; the spirit is a boundary case past distillation.

Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks2 days – 3 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedDistillery practice with no fixed recipe. In one unit studied, about 1,500 L of fermented juice went into the first distillation, and urrak and fresh fermented juice were mixed about 1 to 2 for the second.
Ripe cashew apples, nuts removedProcessed within two to three hours of picking; in one unit studied the juice held about 15 % w/v fermentable sugar[kannan2021]
Urrak (first distillate) with fresh fermented cashew juicemixed in a proportion the distiller decidesHeated together in the second distillation to make feni[kannan2021]
Starterspontaneous (wild yeasts; no added yeast)

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 days – 3 days

Start
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What changes: The cashew apples are stomped or pressed and the juice runs out

Step 1 of 4
Stomp or press the cashew apples
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Yeasts

Output: cashew apple juice.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

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

Cashew feni is Goa's spirit distilled from the fermented juice of cashew apples. Fallen ripe apples are stomped or pressed, and the juice ferments wild for two or three days until the froth stops; a first distillation gives the weaker urrak, and a second, with fresh fermented juice added, gives feni of about 42–43 % alcohol. The juice ferment is the fermented step; the spirit is a boundary case past distillation. Made in 4 steps over 2 days – 3 days. The longest step, ferment the juice wild, takes 2–3 days (Kannan V 2021). Wild yeasts; Pichia is reported as the main yeast genus in fermented cashew apple juice and Saccharomyces species do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step2–3 daysReported[kannan2021]Ferment the juice wild

What makes this one different

Goa is the one Indian state that makes full use of its cashew apples, for feni, and the juice ferments wild for only two or three days. It is distilled twice, with fresh fermented juice added to the second run.

Related ferments

Variants

  • UrrakThe first distillate, weaker and drunk fresh in the season; it spoils quickly.
  • Coconut feniDistilled from fermented coconut toddy; generally accepted to have been made before cashew feni.

Safety

Indian standards for cashew feni call for tests of acidity, esters, aldehydes, higher alcohols, alcohol and methanol. A review of fruit spirits in general, not of feni, says methanol forms from fruit pectin during fermentation and mash storage and is toxic above threshold levels. It also says the natural content of fruit spirits does not typically reach levels that cause acute poisoning, and that poisonings typically come from methanol added to illicit spirits. It adds that in a pot still methanol stays at almost the same level through most of the run and builds up at the end, so setting aside the first drops does not remove it. It says cutting off the last fraction can lower methanol by 20–30 %.

History and sources

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

Kannan and colleagues (2021) write that European explorers brought the cashew tree, native to Brazil, to Asia and Africa in the sixteenth century. Wikipedia says the Portuguese imported it to Goa from Brazil, that it is unclear when and who first made a fermented drink from the fruit, and that cashew feni was registered as a geographical indication in 2009.

  1. [kannan2021] Kannan V., Rangarajan V., Manjare S.D., Pathak P.V. 2021, Microbial production of value-added products from cashew apples, an economical boost to cashew farmers, J. Pure Appl. Microbiol. 15(4):1816–1832paper
  2. [assotikar2026] Assotikar H. 2026, Urrak as a traditional fermented cashew beverage, tourist perceptions and bio-cultural sustainability in Goa, Inventum Biologicum 6(1):14–21paper
  3. [thiruvelavan2025] Thiruvelavan M. et al. 2025, Cashew apple wine, feni and vinegar, potential industrial products of the future, Plant Science Today (abstract)paper
  4. [blumenthal2021] Blumenthal P., Steger M.C., Einfalt D. et al. 2021, Methanol mitigation during manufacturing of fruit spirits with special consideration of novel coffee cherry spirits, Molecules 26(9):2585 (general safety text only)paper
  5. [WP:Feni (liquor)] Wikipedia, Feni (liquor) (outline only)wiki