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Home , Arrack, Punch (drink)

Oft-overlooked and very much misunderstood, has played a key role in history, say Anistatia Miller and Jared Brown arrack

rrack, , raki, arkhi. This claim to the island in 1619. (The city was should be confusing. These are not renamed Djakarta following the Japanese A all the same spirit, and people have occupation in 1942). been getting them mixed up for as long Batavia arrack was immensely popular as international travel has brought them in early 18th century London. Considered to the attention of international travellers. superior to Caribbean rum, it was a higher- Arak and raki are Middle Eastern, - priced option for tavern-goers ordering based spirits that are flavoured with . . Punch came from , brought Arkhi, from Mongolia, is distilled from to Britain, in the late 1500s, by sailors who koumis, fermented mare’s milk that is were enamoured of its remarkable flavour. frequently described as one of the least- Punch’s original base spirit was arrack. pleasant beverages ever consumed for A 1737 illustration of a satirically pleasure. And arrack was once a Hindi proposed monument to notorious Covent umbrella-term for all distilled spirits: Garden coffee house owner Tom King one intrepid explorer wrote, in 1825, featured casks of arrack and , but ‘The natives call our , English arrack.’ no gin. Arrack was the of those who But arrack is not all spirits. It is one could afford better than the basics. very pleasant – and almost completely forgotten – produced in India, arrack , Java, and the . When Britain took possession of what is Actually, it’s a few spirits. Still confused? now Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in 1802, arrack Arrack predates all the new world was already long established spirits, it predates Scotch and Irish both there and in Goa in southern India. whiskey. It predates gin and genever. Unlike Batavia arrack, Ceylon arrack was After Marco Polo commented on it in his produced from ‘toddy’, fermented of 13th century travelogue Il Milione, it was the palm, extracted by cutting the

Arrack was the drink of those who could afford better than the basics brought to Russia by Genoese merchants flowers from the tree and hanging a bucket a century before the Russians’ love of below the cut to gather the free-flowing and was replaced with a taste sap. No is added. In fact, the sap has for distilled spirits. In fact, it is the parent to be gathered in the mornings, so that the of . Though its birth is lost in heat of the day sparks the airborne yeast history, there is no doubt arrack is one into action. This turns the sap from slightly of the oldest distilled spirits in the world. sweet milky water to toddy – palm – in a matter of hours. batavia arrack Toddy production has changed little A few styles of arrack are still produced since Marco Polo first described it inIl today. Batavia arrack, hailing from the Milione. ‘Toddy tappers’ climb to the Indonesian island of Java, is made from tops of towering palm trees on sweeping molasses and water using dried cakes plantations in Sri Lanka’s ‘toddy belt’. of red and various other botanicals Here they cut the buds from the flower containing yeast and other fungi spores stems and lower full buckets of palm as the starter for fermentation. water to the ground before crossing by The fermented molasses mixture is rope to the next tree. The toddy was then distilled in traditional pot stills. once distilled strictly in pot stills, though Batavia is the name the Dutch East India column stills are now in use producing Company gave Java’s capital when it laid a much higher quality spirit. >>

MARCH/APRIL 2010 imbibe 109 strap

Arrack comes around again

One London that has embraced the return of arrack is China Tang at The Dorchester hotel. Luca Cordiglieri has created four Ceylon arrack-based drinks: an aperitif style , a punch, a -based short drink, and an after- Two arracks you can buy in the UK dinner drink. ‘I liked that in all of them the character of the arrack was coming Rockland orange and toffee. Nose: Nutty and oily, with a through, making it versatile and able to Conclusion: Complex and hint of camphor, faint allspice. Ceylon Arrack stand as a main spirit,’ says Cordiglieri. so unique as to deserve its Taste: Lightly smoky, sharp, 40% abv Meanwhile, at the Connaught hotel, Production: Coconut own class. Pleasant with a bit overwhelmingly herbaceous Erik Lorincz has created a superb Dutch palm nectar, wild airborne of water or an ice cube, and and slightly sour, distinct East Indies Daisy using Batavia arrack. yeast; column distilled assertive enough to mix well. teakwood, full-bodied, with Colour: Deep golden, £25/70cl from Rockland Brands, a long oily finish. He found that the arrack complemented light amber 07813 855253 Conclusion: Reminiscent of rum, chocolate and so added crème de cacao Nose: Vanilla, caramel, yuzu, as it was made 150 years ago, to his creation. But this addition would tamarind, powdered , light Batavia Arrack it is as raw as the old techniques not surprise anyone who produces fine camphor in the finish. van Oosten still used in its manufacture. chocolate. Though arrack disappeared Taste: Dry and refined, an 50% abv Unpleasant in straight from nearly all bar shelves ages ago, it herbaceous foretaste leads Production: Molasses, consumption, it can be can still be found in kitchens where it is excellent with the right mixers. to touches of grapefruit peel yeast and rice cake for traditionally used in dark chocolate. and Brazil nut, then into a long fermentation; pot distilled £30.64/70cl from www. rich, buttery finish with hints of Colour: Clear thewhiskyexchange.com Alegria By Erik Lorincz The best-known recipe using arrack transport of arrack on its ships except for Glass: Toddy is Swedish Punch. It has been around consumption on board. Rum production Method: Add two spoons of mix into a glass then for a few centuries, as documented by grew exponentially, while arrack add the remaining ingredients and stir. Serve hot. Pehr Osbeck, Olof Torén and Carl Gustaf production gradually faded out. 35ml Ceylon Arrack (Mendis 7yo) Ekeberg, in their 1771 book A Voyage to Then during the Second World War, the 15ml Appleton Extra China and the East Indies: Pacific theatre witnessed horrific battles, 10ml St Elizabeth Allspice dram ‘To a quart of boiling water, half a pint and most arrack production ceased as 3drops Stoughton’s bitters of arrack is taken, to which one pound a result. In some cases, like in Goa, it 2tbsp Alegria mix* of sugar, and five or six , or instead disappeared completely. In Java, it nearly 150ml Darjeeling (hot) of them as many tamarinds as are disappeared – exports were almost solely *Alegria mix: rapadura sugar, butter, honey, necessary to give it the true acidity, are to China and Sweden – and it’s only in pinch of sea salt. Caramelise the sugar; add added: a is likewise grated into the last few years that it’s come streaming the butter, honey and salt. Stir and pour into it. The punch which is made for the men back into the world market. a clean jar. Store in a refrigerator. in our ship was heated with red hot iron It’s odd that Polynesia and the East balls which were thrown into it. Those Indies provided the inspiration for Trader who can afford it, make punch a usual drink after dinner.’ Most arrack production ceased as Taxes & war So, what happened to arrack? First, a result of World War II taxation. By the early 1800s protectionist import taxes were levied against spirits Vic and Don the Beachcomber to launch Ironically those first tropical drinks that imported from the east, giving an the Tiki craze that swept through drinking they experienced were far more likely made enormous advantage in , then the culture from the 1940s through the 1960s with arrack – Polynesian rum. Caribbean world’s richest market, to Caribbean and (and thrives today in such great bars as rum was simply an available substitute American rum producers. The British London’s Mahiki and Trailer Happiness when the Tiki drinks were mixed in the went so far as to ban or Hula Tiki Lounge in Manchester). United States.

110 imbibe MARCH/APRIL 2010