http://www.tehelka.com/fenis-tipsy-turvy-fortunes/ The number of feni lovers is fast shrinking in Goa. But aficionados continue to swear by the poor man’s drink, writes Ashim Choudhury Remember the good old times when you were going to Goa for a holiday and would be burdened by pleas, “Can you bring some feni for me please?” Now, a trip to Goa no longer elicits that kind of response. Now, if you tell a friend, “I’m going to Goa… Should I bring some feni for you?” the answer very likely will be, “Nahi yaar… rehne de.” What they don’t tell you openly is that they can’t stand the whiff of feni. Meanwhile, feni has acquired a unique status after it was given GI or Geographical Indicator in 2009. GI makes Feni unique to Goa much on the lines of Tequila of Mexico, Scotch from Scotland or Champagne of France. Yet cashew feni still remains the poor man’s drink despite desperate promotional efforts by Goa’s fashionable set to keep the shrinking flock of feni drinkers.Feni production after GI has not climbed. It is made from ripe cashew apples, fallen on the ground, but cashew apples are rotting at the farms in Goa and its surroundings, without any takers. When asked why he did not sell his cashew apples dumped on the ground, a cashew farmer on the border with Karnataka remarked, “Who will buy?”So why has feni lost its fizz? The fact is that in the past four decades, feni production has been steadily falling, from 1,089,000 litres in 1971 to 875,000 litres in 2004. In the same period, production of distilled spirits climbed from 202,000 litres to 18.99 million litres.One of the reasons for Goa’s current low turnover is that feni continues to be labelled ‘country liquor’, preventing its sale outside the state. Moreover, feni production still largely remains a cottage industry. Not uncommonly, it is also distilled in individual homes sans a licence. Why, even Goan priests, particularly from the south still like to brew their own feni. “They still distill it in earthen pots the traditional lavani way,” says an old Goan who knows his feni.A major problem with feni production is that there is no uniform method of distilling it, nor is there any quality control. Not surprisingly, much of the feni sold in Goa is spurious or adulterated. A lot of it is produced by small, unlicensed producers. No wonder then, no Goan will easily take you to a ‘fenifactory’ without permission from the owner. This writer’s wait was so long he decided to go out on his own.From Anjuna village, we set out northwards and moved along to Mapusa, finally coming upon the Goa- Mumbai highway. That’s where we met one Chengappa who told us to go further on the highway till we cross a river, and move up further. “Once you are near the bhattis, you’ll know by the smell in the air,” he tells us.Indeed, half an hour later, after crossing the scenic river below us, our nostrils are invaded by the strong whiff of feni. This is Dhargal, some 22 km north of Panjim. Driving on the gravel road, we are soon at the feni distillery that looks somewhat like a cowshed and smells like rotting garbage. The workers at the bhatti show us around readily. What I mistake to be a drain of sewage is actually the juice of cashew apples that are being squeezed in a basket. This juice finally finds its way through gutters into large copper pots that are being constantly heated, distilled to form urak. The Kalogis have 20 matkas or stills in all. Pulp and sludge from the Kalogi distillery also flowed out untreated into the neighbouring farm, turning it into a ditch.We found Francis, another distiller, as we were heading for the Arambol beach region when there was a sudden clearing in the forest that revealed a blue river below. In this desolate place, except for a beached boat along the serene river, there was not a soul in sight. Out of sheer curiosity, I stepped into the palm shed from where some voices emerged and lo and behold, this was a feni factory! Francis, his hands muddy from repairing a still, showed us around. He took us through the rows of urak and feni being distilled. There were several stills here, in this place taken on rent by Francis.This distillery is a cooperative of sorts. Six friends have got together under a licence owner, who gets a fee from them. Francis and two of his friends have two stills each. The remaining three have one each. They are small distillers who come together for the months of March and April when the cashew apple is abundantly available. The feni they produce is sold directly to Goa bars. And how much does Francis make in a season? “Nothing,” he says with a sense of resignation, “A jar (20 bottles) fetches just Rs 700-800.” Francis laments that people are not drinking feni the way they did earlier. Terekholkhari, the river on whose banks the distillery is camouflaged, also serves as a border between Maharashtra and Goa. If his distillery is on the Goa side, Francis’s home across the river is in Maharashtra.From Khareban village, my feni trail took me to Captain Vijay Shankar, formerly of the Indian Navy, who lives in Porvorim near Panaji. Hailing from Kerala, the man has not only a Goan wife but has also adopted the state as his own. He loves his feni. Some describe him as a connoisseur. He scoffs, “I’m just a feni drinker, nothing more.” Captain Shankar goes great lengths to procure his pure stock of feni and urak. “Urak is the first line distilled from the juice of cashew or neera and has a fresh fruity flavour,” he avows. It is also smoother and has to be consumed within a month of being produced, unlike feni that can be stored away for more than a year. Urak, after two-three rounds of distillation, sometimes mixed with neera, becomes what is called feni. It is great alcohol, but for its strong whiff. According to Shankar, feni has an alcohol content of 50 to 60 percent. This is much higher than the conventional whiskey or rum. But even Shankar does not take feni regularly, because “my wife will kick me out of the house”. Drinking feni makes your sweat, and other excretions, stink like the alcohol. Feni also causes you to burp, inviting frowns from polite people.No wonder the number of feni lovers even within Goa is shrinking. Krishna Sarmalatara, a young man in his thirties from Dhargal, wrinkles his nose. “Peene ko baas marta,” he says with disdain, “so we drink ‘English’ only.”Captain Shankar, however, is happy that the GI tag has not really taken feni off its humble roots. “Thank God,” he says, “Else, it’ll disappear from the shelves… I can’t pay Rs 500, say, like for a shot of Tequila… I pay Rs 100 for a litre of feni. Leave it alone for the sake of the common Goan.” His fears of feni going beyond the reach of the ordinary Goan have so far proved wrong. Meanwhile, coconut feni, common to south Goa, is also suffering because the toddy tappers are no longer available. Many vouch for its better taste and less odour.Meanwhile, moves are afoot to give cashew feni ‘heritage’ or Indian Manufactured Foreign Liquor (IMFL) status so that it can be exported. After GI certification, only liquor made from cashew apples sourced within Goa can be called ‘feni’. If marketed as a Goan holiday drink, feni has huge potential. Industry people admit that GI has not helped the cashew feni cause because of the ‘country-liquor’ tag. If classified as IMFL, then the market for feni will open up.“The GI certificate is to protect cashew feni,” says Cashew Feni Distillers and Bottlers Association president Mac Vaz, who owns popular feni brands. He says the GI tag will prevent other states such as Maharashtra and Kerala, which also produce large quantities of cashew apples, from producing and selling ‘feni’. Vaz is hopeful of the government classifying cashew feni as ‘heritage liquor’ so that it can be exported easily.Hansel Vaz, owner of the popular feni brand Cazulo, says, “GI has recognised the 400-year-old art of feni making. Now we need to reach out to people at the grassroots, the small distillers, and tell them the importance of sticking to best practices like using copper stills, picking up only fallen fruit, not storing feni in plastic jars, and other aspects of quality.” The association has also initiated measures to certify genuine cashew feni. There are fears that this, ultimately, might edge out the small distillers who own one or two stills, making feni an exclusive club of the big boys, leaving some 45,000 people without one of their main sources of income. With the government finally waking up to feni’s newfound GI status, feni’s fizz, it appears, cannot remain bottled for long.Ashim Choudhury is the author of The Sergeant’s [email protected]
