{"id":59666,"date":"2023-11-06T21:00:36","date_gmt":"2023-11-06T12:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2023\/nov\/06\/fermented-coconut-cashew-fruit-ancient-spirits-india-craft-alcohol-boom-feni"},"modified":"2023-11-06T21:00:36","modified_gmt":"2023-11-06T12:00:36","slug":"fermented-coconut-and-cashew-fruit-the-ancient-spirits-fuelling-indias-craft-alcohol-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=59666","title":{"rendered":"Fermented coconut and cashew fruit: the ancient spirits fuelling India\u2019s craft alcohol boom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, homegrown spirits have sprung up in abundance, changing the palates of young Indian drinkers and garnering international acclaim<\/p>\n<p>Sheltered in the shade of a mango tree entwined with peppercorn vines, a vast clay pot sits on top of a fire, its lid sealed tight with mud. Distilling within is India\u2019s oldest alcoholic spirit, said to date back almost 500 years.<\/p>\n<p>This spirit, known as feni, was the liquor that lubricated life here in India\u2019s small, verdant state of Goa for centuries; sipped gently in the evenings, uproariously knocked back at festivals, and given as a medicinal pick-me-up for aches and fevers. While a potent, locally brewed jar \u2013 made either from coconut wine freshly tapped from palm trees<strong> <\/strong>or fermented cashew fruit \u2013 could be found in almost every Goan home, it was never drunk outside state borders.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2023\/nov\/06\/fermented-coconut-cashew-fruit-ancient-spirits-india-craft-alcohol-boom-feni\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, homegrown spirits have sprung up in abundance, changing the palates of young Indian drinkers and garnering international acclaimSheltered in the shade of a mango tree entwined with peppercorn vines, a vast clay pot sits on top of a fire, its &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4028,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[969,62,61,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alcohol","category-india","category-south-and-central-asia","category-world-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4028"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59667,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59666\/revisions\/59667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}