Tuba

There's a first time for everything, and this week was the first time for me to taste coconut wine (or 'tuba'). Tuba is the sap of an unopened coconut that is made to trickle into bamboo containers hanging in the treetops. Tuba has a sweet taste and feels a bit like honey to your tongue. In my opinion, it doesn't really have a very refined taste, but Filipino men are usually fond of it. If the tuba is left to ferment for a longer time, it becomes a very strong liquor. What is most spectacular about tuba, though, is the way it is collected. The man in the picture is Alim, a resident of Tudaya who has a few coconut trees in his garden and who was so kind to let us taste some of his tuba. Needless to say, it was a long evening...