Lost in history: Indonesian and Ceylonese arak (arrack)

Arak (arak) and crayfish are distillates in the Middle East, mainly from grapes, flavored with anise (Greek ouzo can also be included here, but we have a separate analysis about Turkish crayfish). Arkhi, from Mongolia, is distilled from koumiss, a fermented mare’s milk often referred to as one of the least pleasant drinks ever consumed for pleasure. The Khakass araka also belongs to milk distillates. And arrack was once a generic Hindi term for all distilled beverages: in 1825, an intrepid explorer wrote: “The natives call our English gin arrack.”

But arak (arrack, always with two “r” and “c”) – not all distillates. This is one very pleasant – and almost completely forgotten – strong alcoholic drink, produced in India, Sri Lanka, Java and the Philippines. In fact, these are several completely different alcoholic beverages. Still confused? Read on.

Although its birth is lost to history, there is no doubt that arak is one of the world’s oldest distilled alcoholic beverages. It predates Scotch and Irish whisky. It appeared much earlier than gin and jenever. After Marco Polo mentioned it in his memoirs Il Millione, Genoese merchants brought oriental arak to Russia, a century before our ancestors’ love of honey and beer was replaced by a passion for distilled drinks. This is how vodka was born.

Arak also preceded all New World distillates. The same Genoese merchants who introduced the spirit of alcohol to the Russian spirit invested in the production of cane sugar in the Canary Islands. Along with the production of sugar, the distillation of arrack was established, which became more profitable to cook on the spot, rather than import from the other side of the mainland for a rapidly growing list of customers. Later, when the cane industry was transferred to the Caribbean, arak became the prototype of cachaça, which, in turn, became the progenitor of the Spanish ron, English rum, and French rhum.

It is useful to know that arak has two main styles and origins: “Ceylon arak”, distilled from palm sap in Sri Lanka, and “Batavia arak”, distilled from molasses in Java, Indonesia. This neat country classification is not entirely accurate, as arak is also made from sugar palm sap (and other raw materials) in Western Indonesia, the Philippines, and Goa, southern India. Let’s figure it out.

Like vodka, Indonesian arak (spelled as “arak” in Indonesian, another coin of confusion around this drink) can be made from almost anything, from rice or molasses to palm sap or waste from pineapple harvesting. The term usually means “distilled drink” and has been used in Indonesia since at least the 1300s.

It is assumed that the Indonesians learned distillation from Chinese merchants: the Chinese have been distilling alcohol since at least the 1100s, and some researchers believe even earlier. But distilling palm sap is a very simple process. The juice, which begins to ferment even during its collection, is distilled in primitive bamboo moonshine stills. In this case, only the first few bottles of distillate are saved, and the rest of the wort is sent to the scrap. Perhaps the Indonesians thought of this even without prompting from the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire.

On Indonesia’s 17000+ islands, arak goes by many different names. While the Batavia arak from Java is the most famous style outside of Indonesia, the second place is taken by the arak from Bali, which is made from rice. Throughout eastern Indonesia, especially on the island of Sulawesi, arak “cap tikus” (cap tikus), moonshine from the juice of the sugar palm, is popular, which has been illegally distilled and consumed by the local population, and now by tourists, for centuries. On the island of Madura, arak is often sold with a snake in a bottle, which is said to enhance the alcoholic “rush”.

Produced in Java, Batavia Arrack is distilled from molasses, a by-product of cane sugar production, and water, using dried red Java rice cakes with various botanicals that are home to native yeasts and fungal spores that drive the fermentation process. This technique is still used to make sake and numerous drinks in Asia, including the Chinese baijiu vodka. The fermented molasses mixture is then distilled in traditional pot stills. Rum in the flesh.

The name “Batavia” comes from the Dutch colonial name of the capital of Indonesia from 1619 on the island of Java, where the production of Batavia arak continues to this day. Later, after the occupation of Java by the Japanese in 1942, the capital was renamed Jakarta (Djakarta), since 1972 known as “Jakarta”.

Historically, Batavia-arak is closely associated with the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch did not fail with him, having established exports throughout Europe, especially to the UK and Sweden. Arak was very popular in the early 1700s in London. It is believed that it was then of much better quality than Caribbean rum, and was a more expensive option for regulars in London taverns, where punch dominated.

The most famous drink recipe that includes Batavia arak is Swedish punch (note spelled “Punsch”, not the English “Punch”). In Western countries it is also known as Arrack Punsch, Caloric Punch, Punssi in Finnish or simply Punsch. Its recipe can be found for the first time in the 1771 book “A Voyage to China and the East Indies”, Pehr Osbeck, Olof Torén and Carl Gustav Ekeberg (hereinafter an excerpt from the book in a free translation of the author):

Almost everyone knows how to make a punch; but for future generations, who will probably bring it to its maximum perfection, I will mention the true proportion of its constituent parts. To a liter of boiling water, add half a pint of arak (250 ml), then add 1 pound (450 g) of sugar and five or six lemons, or as many tamarinds in place of them, as needed to give the punch the desired acidity; be sure to season with grated nutmeg. The punch that was being prepared for our people on the ship was heated by a red-hot iron ball thrown into it. Those who can afford it prepare the punch like a regular afternoon digestif. While we were in China, we drank it for dinner instead of wine.

The Swedish East India Company first imported Batavia arak in 1733. The inhabitants of the northern country liked the drink: they composed songs and made loud toasts in honor of it, and university staff and students perceived it as an important part of the cultural life of campuses. Due to its growing popularity, ready-made Swedish punch began to be mass-produced from the 1840s, and it is still available under numerous brand names.

Swedish punch, as a popular cocktail ingredient from a forgotten era, is a curiosity for our drinkers. It is very difficult to buy it in the CIS. But Erik Ellestad, a well-known cocktail enthusiast from San Francisco, recently explored this phenomenon and offered his version of the Swedish punch:

Place lemon slices, rum and arak in a jar of suitable size and leave for 6 hours in a dark, cool place. Steep cardamom tea in boiling water for 6 minutes, then strain. Add sugar to spiced tea, mix well and wait for cooling. Strain lemon juice and mix with tea syrup. If necessary, filter, bottle and let rest for at least one day.

* in modern interpretations of Swedish punch, including domestic ones, Batavia-arak is often replaced with kashasa.

When Britain took possession of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1802, the distillation of arak was common there, as it was in Goa, India. Unlike Batavia arak, Ceylon and Indian arak are made from fermented coconut palm juice (toddy, palm tuak, or just palm wine). This process is extremely entertaining and has not changed for centuries.

Palm sap flows from the cut flower stalk, the unformed palm inflorescence, and later the coconut. The harvest is carried out by “toddy tappers”, fearless acrobats who in the morning climb barefoot to the tops of palm trees and cut the stems, substituting buckets for juice under them. On the tops of trees, to save time, they will move along ropes stretched between palm trees at a height of 25 meters above the ground. Every day, one such tree can produce up to 2 liters of juice.

Due to the high content of sugar and natural yeast in the juice, its fermentation begins immediately. In just a few hours, it turns into a low-alcohol toddy (the term “toddy” comes from the Hindi word “taree” and, before the arrival of the British, fermented palm juice was called “terry”), which can be distilled. Distillation has traditionally been carried out in copper stills, but distillation columns or a combination of both are often used today.

The resulting drink is often aged in teak or Ceylon Halmilla barrels for up to 15 years (this arak is labeled “Premium Aged”, it is produced under the brands Ceylon Arrack, VSOA, VX, Vat9, Old Reserve and Extra Special). But more often the drink is distilled several times for additional purification and softening – such arak is called “Premium Clear” (popular brands: Double Distilled and Blue Label). If a bottle of Ceylon arak bears the inscription “Common”, then the palm sap distillate has been mixed with other neutral spirits.

According to a similar scheme in the Philippines, coconut moonshine Lambanog is prepared. After distillation, it is often infused with raisins, mango, blueberries, pineapple, and/or cinnamon. In 2018, lambanogh was the subject of a major scandal due to several deaths following its use. Later it turned out that a violation of production technology led to a very high level of methanol in the distillate (up to 8,9%). Violators are punished.

The first blow to the arak was taxation. By the early 1800s, protectionist taxes began to be levied on alcohol imported from the east, which gave a huge advantage in Europe – then the richest market in the world – to rum producers in the Caribbean and America. The British East India Company went so far as to ban the carriage of arrack on their ships, except for consumption on board. The production of rum grew exponentially, while the production of arak rapidly declined.

However, Harry Johnson, in his 1882 Bartender’s Guide, included Batavia arak in his recipes for “English King’s Punch”, “Hot Arak Punch”, and this excellent “Cold Ruby Punch”:

During World War II, the Pacific theater saw gruesome battles and much of the arrack production there ceased. In some places, for example, in Goa, it has disappeared completely. In Java, it has almost disappeared (exported exclusively to China and Sweden) and has begun to return to the world market only in recent years.

Despite external pressure, it is strange that arak has sunk into oblivion. Polynesia and the East Indies were the inspiration for Trader Vic and Don Beechcomber in the 1930s, who discovered the tiki craze that continues to thrive around the world to this day. Probably, their first creations were made just the same from arak – Polynesian rum. Caribbean rum was just an affordable substitute when tiki drinks were made in the US. How else to explain the fact that Trader Vic Bergeron included this Arak cooler in his 1948 Bartender’s Guide:

Now that arak has started to reappear on the international stage, it’s important to understand the differences between its two main styles (differences that make them even less similar than vodka to gin).

Batavia-arak is the heavy and cheerful uncle of dark rum. It is oily and unrefined, rich in both pleasant aromas and coarse impurities (now such flavoring impurities are called the buzzword “hogo” (hogo), which can be identified with the term rancio (rancio)) – a consequence of fermentation by mold fungi. It is usually dominated by assertive fruity esters and spices.

Ceylon arak, on the other hand, is surprisingly refined, soft and delicate. It is more like a mixture of light rum and cognac with many subtle floral undertones and will most likely dissolve without residue in a glass of its rough Batavian namesake.

Both varieties of arak can be drunk neat with ice or mixed with ginger ale or ginger beer, as is customary in Sri Lanka, for example. But their role, of course, is old, long-forgotten cocktails, the recipes of which can be spied on in such Talmuds as The Savoy Cocktail Book by Harry Craddock. And if you come across a real Batavia arak with its unforgettable taste, it would be a sin not to cook a Swedish punch with it. By the way, it is perfect in the company with the “dough” for hot butter rum – mix 60 ml of punch with 1 tablespoon of “dough” and you will have a real Swedish warming hygge.

Now you know what to bring from your trip to Southeast Asia. And if you have already brought it, then share your impressions in the comments!