Philippine distillers praise coconut vodka
Said to be powerful but smooth, lambanog liquor is beginning to find markets overseas
With their huge copper vats and open fires, little-known backyard liquor makers have toiled for generations on Philippine coconut farms to distil their equivalent of Russian vodka.
Once considered a lowly peasant's drink whose potency is said to put other liquors and spirits worldwide in the shade, the lambanog is the Philippine version of coconut arrack also made in Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
"Many have compared it to Russian vodka or English gin, but what sets our lambanog apart is that you don't get a hangover," said distiller Isabelita Capistrano, 65. The family-owned Capistrano Distillery in coconut-rich Tayabas, Quezon province, is one of two leading makers of lambanog.
"It is a very hard drink. Japanese and South Korean [tourists] especially like it. Americans find it too strong, but smooth," said the former high-school teacher.
But if drinking it is a challenge, making it is a high-risk pursuit that can lead to the death of those who climb coconut trees to collect the frothy sap that is fermented to produce the drink. "People have fallen and died or had broken bones," said Eugenio Andaya, who has been climbing the trees since he was a teenager.
Workers climb the trees without protective harnesses to prune the coconut flowers before they turn into fruits. The sap is allowed to drip into bamboo receptacles.
Like high-wire performers, the tappers navigate a network of bamboo bridges connecting the trees nine metres above the ground, with blades on their waists and bags tightly strapped to their shoulders.