Laksoy (also spelled lacsoy), is a traditional Filipino

distilled Distillation, also classical distillation, is the process of separating the component substances of a liquid mixture of two or more chemically discrete substances; the separation process is realized by way of the selective boiling of the mixt ...

nipa

palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae ** List of Arecaceae genera **Palm oil * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music ...

liquor Liquor ( , sometimes hard liquor), spirits, distilled spirits, or spiritous liquor are alcoholic drinks produced by the distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar that have already gone through ethanol fermentation, alcoholic ferm ...

. It is derived from

tubâ Tubâ () is a traditional Filipino cuisine, Filipino palm wine made from the naturally fermented sap of various species of palm trees. During the Spanish Empire, Spanish colonial period, tubâ was introduced to Guam, the Marianas, and Mexico vi ...

(palm toddy) made from

nipa palm ''Nypa fruticans'', commonly known as the nipa palm (or simply nipa, from ) or mangrove palm, is a species of palm native to the coastlines and estuarine habitats of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the only palm considered adapted to the ...

sap which has been aged for at least 48 hours. It originates from Eastern

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) is the List of islands of the Philippines, second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and List of islands by population, seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the ...

, the

Visayas Islands The Visayas ( ), or the Visayan Islands ( Visayan: ''Kabisay-an'', ; Filipino: ''Kabisayaan'' ), are one of the three principal geographical divisions of the Philippines, along with Luzon and Mindanao. Located in the central part of the arch ...

, (where it is known as dalisay or dalisay de nipa), the

Bicol Region The Bicol Region, designated as Region V, is an administrative region of the Philippines. It comprises six Provinces of the Philippines, provinces, four on the Bicol Peninsula (the luzon#Southeastern Luzon, southeastern end of Luzon): Albay, Ca ...

(where it is known as barik), and Southern

Luzon Luzon ( , ) is the largest and most populous List of islands in the Philippines, island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the List of islands of the Philippines, Philippine archipelago, it is the economic and political ce ...

(where it is known as

lambanog Lambanóg is a traditional Philippines, Filipino distilled palm wine, palm liquor made from the naturally fermented sap (tubâ) of the coconut palm. It originates from Luzon and the Visayas Islands (where it was historically known as ''dalisay ...

or ''lambanog sa sasa)''. During the Spanish colonial period, it was also known as ''vino de nipa'' in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

. It has a typical alcohol content of 70 to 100

proof Proof most often refers to: * Proof (truth), argument or sufficient evidence for the truth of a proposition * Alcohol proof, a measure of an alcoholic drink's strength Proof may also refer to: Mathematics and formal logic * Formal proof, a co ...

(40 to 45%

abv Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as alc/vol or ABV) is a common measure of the amount of alcohol contained in a given alcoholic beverage. It is defined as the volume the ethanol in the liquid would take if separated from the rest of the solution, ...

) after a single distillation.

History

Tubâ Tubâ () is a traditional Filipino cuisine, Filipino palm wine made from the naturally fermented sap of various species of palm trees. During the Spanish Empire, Spanish colonial period, tubâ was introduced to Guam, the Marianas, and Mexico vi ...

, a variety of

palm wine Palm wine, known by several #Names, local names, is an alcoholic beverage created from the sap of various species of palm trees such as the Borassus, palmyra, date palms, and coconut palms. It is known by various names in different regions and ...

, existed in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

before colonisation. They were widely consumed for recreation and important in various religious rituals. Heavy consumption of alcohol in the Philippine islands was described in several Spanish accounts. Social drinking (''tagayan'' or ''inuman'' in Tagalog and

Visayan languages The Bisayan languages or Visayan languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages spoken in the Philippines. They are most closely related to Tagalog and the Bikol languages, all of which are part of the Central Philippine languages. Mo ...

) was and continues to be an important aspect of Filipino social interactions. Laksoy is pre-colonial in origin. Despite being distilled, laksoy and lambanog were inaccurately called ''vino de nipa'' and ''vino de coco'', respectively, in Spanish. In ''Historia de Las Islas E Indios de Bisayas'' (1668), the Spanish missionary

Francisco Ignacio Alcina Francisco Ignacio (de) Alcina SJ (also Alzina, Alçina) (February 2, 1610 – July 30, 1674) was a Spanish historian and a Jesuit missionary in the Philippines. He served as parish priest in the Visayan islands for 37 years. Most of those years ...

described "dalisay" as ''vino de la nipa, el primero que se extrae y más fuerte'' ("nipa wine, the first to be extracted and the strongest"). In the ''Vocabulario de la lengua Tagala, primera, y segunda parte'' (1794) by Domingo de los Santos, he defines ''dalisay'' as a type of '' alac'' that is ''muy fuerte y bueno'' ("very strong and good"). In ''Historia general sacro-profana, política y natural de las islas del poniente, llamadas Filipinas'' (1697-1755) by Juan José Delgado, native liquor is described as being distinguished into three types: ''vino ordinario'' (from the first distillate), ''dalisay'' (from the second distillate), and ''mistela'' (from the third distillate). In contrast to Alcina and other authors, Delgado applies the terms to both nipa and coconut liquor, distinguishing them as ''dalisay de nipa'' and ''dalisay de coco''.

Description

has two main variants. The most common being the one made from

coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (biology), family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, ...

sap. It is distilled into

. The second most common type of tubâ is made from

sap. Laksoy is derived from the sap. Like lambanog (made from coconut sap), it is particularly potent, having a typical alcohol content of 70 to 100

(40 to 45%

) after a single distillation.

Production

Laksoy is more difficult to produce than lambanog because the nipa palm must be covered in mud for six weeks to several months in advance. The mud is scraped off and the inflorescence is cut off. The sap which flows out of the cut branch is collected in attached bamboo containers (''salhod'' or ''salod''). The bamboo containers are collected every day and the inflorescence is sliced again by a few millimeters to renew the flow of the sap. The sweet sap is fermented in '' banga'' (earthen jars) to make tubâ, which is then distilled into laksoy.

References

{{Filipino cuisine Filipino distilled drinks Philippine alcoholic drinks

History

Description

Production

See also

References