''Kabarawan'' was a traditional

pre-colonial Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group. Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory. While frequently an Imperialism, imperialist project, colonialism c ...

Filipino

mead Mead (), also called honey wine, and hydromel (particularly when low in alcohol content), is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey mixed with water, and sometimes with added ingredients such as fruits, spices, grains, or hops. The alco ...

-like

alcoholic drink Drinks containing alcohol (drug), alcohol are typically divided into three classes—beers, wines, and Distilled beverage, spirits—with alcohol content typically between 3% and 50%. Drinks with less than 0.5% are sometimes considered Non-al ...

. It was made from boiling the ground up aromatic bark of the kabarawan tree ('' Neolitsea villosa'') until it was reduced to a thick paste. It was then mixed with an equal amount of

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of pl ...

and fermented. It was traditionally consumed from jars with reed or bamboo

straw Straw is an agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry wikt:stalk, stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the crop yield, yield by weight of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, ry ...

s. The wine was mentioned by early Spanish colonists as being made by the

Visayan people Visayans (Cebuano language, Cebuano: ''mga Bisayà'' ) are a Ethnic groups in the Philippines, Philippine ethnolinguistic family group or metaethnicity native to the Visayas, to the southernmost islands south of Luzon, and to a significant port ...

. However, the tradition has been lost in modern times. ''Kabarawan'' tree bark is also used to flavor other types of native wines, like '' intus'' and ''

basi Basí is a traditional Ilocano fermented alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane juice, predominantly produced in Northern Luzon, Philippines particularly in the Ilocos Region. It is fermented in '' burnáy'' (earthen jars) and flavored with ...

'', which are both made from sugarcane juice.

References

{{Filipino cuisine Fermented drinks Philippine alcoholic drinks Mead

See also

References