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Alcoholic drinks from Mizoram, India

Zû (Mizo rice beer) with dawidim/chawl starterzû

Zû is the Mizo name for rice beer. Its starter, dawidim or chawl, is made from soaked, pounded rice shaped into small cakes, dusted with the bark powder of a climber and kept in a container with paddy husk in a hearth until it swells. The best-known kind, zupui, was brewed from bran and broken rice in an earthen pot and sucked out through a pipe.

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

Short entryAlcoholic drinks4 days – 5 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo source gives amounts.
rice (zupui from bran and broken rice; zufâng from Job's tears or glutinous rice)
Starterdawidim / chawl: rice paste cakes dusted with the bark powder of a climber called zangzu, nilengthlum or hawhmathlum

Total time across the recorded steps: 4 days – 5 days

Start
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What changes: Soaked rice is pounded to a smooth paste

Step 1 of 5
Soak rice overnight, drain and pound to a paste
Time
Soaked overnight, drained 15 min
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: rice paste.

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

Zû is the Mizo name for rice beer. Its starter, dawidim or chawl, is made from soaked, pounded rice shaped into small cakes, dusted with the bark powder of a climber and kept in a container with paddy husk in a hearth until it swells. The best-known kind, zupui, was brewed from bran and broken rice in an earthen pot and sucked out through a pipe. Made in 5 steps over 4 days – 5 days. The longest step, keep in paddy husk in a hearth until they swell, takes 4–5 days (Wikipedia 2020).

Key numbers
Main step4–5 daysReported[wp-zu]Keep in paddy husk in a hearth until they swell

What makes this one different

Zû covers several Mizo rice beers that share one bark-dusted rice starter; zupui is drunk communally straight from the pot through a pipe rather than strained.

Related ferments

Variants

  • ZupuiThe main communal beer, from bran and broken rice steamed in a clay-sealed two-pot steamer, fermented in an earthen pot and sucked out through an iron pipe; strong and bitter.
  • ZufângFrom Job's tears, later glutinous rice; low alcohol and honey-sweet ("fang" means not real).
  • ZulawmBrewed once a year for boys' parties.
  • TinzuAfter 1890: husked rice fermented in a leaf-lined tin; milk-white, strong and bitter; filtered.
  • RakzuDistilled in a three-vessel clay-sealed steam still; clear and strong.

History and sources

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

In 1942, zu, irmdh and laopani were described as the universal beers of Assam's hill tribes, and zu as the popular drink of the Nagas.

  1. [wp-zu] Wikipedia, Zû (beverage), citing Thanzami and Lalhlenmawia 2020 in Tamang (ed.), Ethnic Fermented Foods and Beverages of India, pp. 438–451 (outline only)wiki
  2. [chopra1942] Chopra R.N., Chopra G.S., Chopra I.C. 1942, Alcoholic beverages in India, Part II, Indian Medical Gazette 77(5):290–296archive
  3. [fermdb] FermDB (Bokulich lab, ETH Zurich), FermDB_data.tsv, CC BY 4.0web