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Alcoholic drinks from Philippines

Pangasi (Subanen and Visayan jar wine)pangasi

Pangasi, also called pangase, is a group of Filipino rice wines from the Visayas and Mindanao. Among the Subanen it is made from rice, Job's tears or, more and more, cassava, mixed with rice hulls and a starter culture called tapay, and fermented in a jar. In a 2025 field study at Malagandis, Titay, no wine had formed after 15 days and the rice-based wine was made by two months.

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

Short entryAlcoholic drinks2 months

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedOne Subanen community's practice, recorded in a 2025 field study at Malagandis, Titay, Zamboanga Sibugay. The sources used here give no amounts for the rice, hulls or tapay.
Rice (upland rice grown on the family farm)Cassava tubers are used instead when upland rice is scarce, which gives a rice-based and a cassava-based pangasi; Job's tears are another traditional grain[antone2025][WP:Pangasi]
Rice hullsNamed as an ingredient in the 2025 field study[antone2025]
Tapay (starter culture)Traditionally spiced with ginger; hot peppers are also used in modern times[WP:Pangasi][antone2025]
Startertapay, a starter culture

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 months

Start
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What changes: Rice or cassava is cooked before the starter goes in

Step 1 of 4
Cook the rice or cassava
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

The field study describes the procedure as cooking the ingredients first, then mixing in the other elements that start the fermentation. Output: cooked rice or cassava.

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

Pangasi, also called pangase, is a group of Filipino rice wines from the Visayas and Mindanao. Among the Subanen it is made from rice, Job's tears or, more and more, cassava, mixed with rice hulls and a starter culture called tapay, and fermented in a jar. In a 2025 field study at Malagandis, Titay, no wine had formed after 15 days and the rice-based wine was made by two months. Made in 4 steps over 2 months. The longest step, ferment in a jar, takes 2 months (Antone J.M.B 2025). The tapay starter culture does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step2 monthsReported[antone2025][WP:Pangasi]Ferment in a jar

What makes this one different

Pangasi is made by the Subanen with a starter culture called tapay, ginger and rice hulls, and the Subanen version can also be made from Job's tears. Cassava has increasingly replaced the grain in modern pangase.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Cassava pangasiMade when upland rice is scarce. In the 2025 field study the cassava-based wine showed after 45 days, when the rice-based wine had not yet formed, and tasted sour with a higher alcohol content and a lighter orange colour.
  • Pangasi of the Subanen of Zamboanga del Norte (Nabua 2013)Reported by Nabua (2013), as quoted in a Central Philippine University study abstract, to use cassava tubers as the main ingredient and a starter made from 24 to 60 species of plant herbs [gico2018].
  • Pangasi of the Sulodnon (Panay)Fermented with various leaves and sugarcane juice among the Sulodnon people, and very similar to the agkud of the Lumad peoples of Mindanao.

Safety

No safety limits specific to pangasi were found. Cassava pangasi starts from cooked roots, and Codex keeps direct cooking for low-cyanide sweet cassava, because cyanide-forming compounds survive heat [codex-rcp73]. Do not make it from bitter cassava.

History and sources

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

The study's Subanen informants trace pangasi to pre-modern and pre-colonial times, a tradition handed down by their ancestors [antone2025]. Early Spanish explorers mentioned pangasi as common in the Visayas, where it has largely disappeared [WP:Pangasi]. A 2012 study of the Subanen of Dumingag records that they served pangasi at ceremonial celebrations, gatherings and rituals [sali-ot2012].

  1. [codex-rcp73] Codex Alimentarius, CAC/RCP 73-2013, Code of practice for the reduction of hydrocyanic acid (HCN) in cassava and cassava products (copy hosted by the Slovenian food administration)spec
  2. [antone2025] Antone J.M.B., Arresgado X.A., Bolo F.F., Buendia M.O., Fabillaran J.C., Salvacion K.T. 2025, Sustaining indigenous knowledge and traditions, a qualitative study on the pangasi wine crafting of the Subanen community in Zamboanga Sibugay, Philippines, Research Square preprint (not peer reviewed; abstract only)other
  3. [sali-ot2012] Sali-ot M.A., Suarez K.G., Villarmino G.O. 2012, Cultural practices and beliefs of indigenous people in Dumingag, Zamboanga del Sur, IAMURE International Journal of Social Sciences 3(1) (abstract)paper
  4. [gico2018] Gico E.T. and Ybarzabal E.R. 2018, Indigenous rice wine making in Central Panay, Philippines, Central Philippine University (study abstract, posted 20 November 2018)web
  5. [WP:Pangasi] Wikipedia, Pangasi (outline only)wiki
  6. [WP:Philippine wine] Wikipedia, Philippine wine (outline only)wiki