<p>Whilst reminiscing her childhood memories, my mom recalled a local incident of arrack poisoning. She went on to explain how rampant this was back then. They do say books find their way to you. Just shortly after I had had this conversation with my mom, I came across a book that was a finalist in the James Beard Award — <span class="italic">The Language of Food: A linguist reads the menu</span> by Dan Jurafsky. Least did I expect to find something about arrack which he refers to as “an early ancestor of rum, distilling the fermented rice together with the molasses and palm wine.” He traces the origin of this word back to the language of Arabic in which Arag refers to sweat, related to words for other distilled spirits like anise-flavoured Levantine arak and Croatian plum brandy rakia.</p>.<p>This distilled alcoholic drink is locally made typically in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia. This is made from the fermented sap of coconut flowers or sugarcane and sometimes includes a grain such as red rice or a fruit depending on where it is made. To cope with the growing list of customers, the Genoese merchants made this spirit a byproduct of sugarcane to meet the demand for consumption. Regardless of origin, the predominance of this drink in the Asian and Eastern Mediterranean regions is due to the proliferation of distillation knowledge throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. The fermented juice of the coconut flower from which arrack is distilled is referred to as Toddy.</p>.<p>Back then, a drink based on arrack had been offered by Emperor Jahangir to the English diplomat Sir Thomas Roe. The drink had been strong enough to make him sneeze. I came across this Megillah when reading the book, <span class="italic">A Historical Dictionary of Indian Food</span> by K T Achaya, a historian. Arrack was banned in the state of Kerala in 1996. The Kerala Excise manual volume 2, chapter 12 is dedicated to arrack. Despite the ban, excise officials say that arrack is still prevalent in many regions of Kerala. This they say is mainly due to the lack of affordability for branded liquor. In 2016, 1,76,381 litres of wash and 4,105 litres of arrack were seized and destroyed by the Kerala Excise Department with a similar incident occurring during raids in 2018. The excise officials feel that there is a growing market for local arrack due to the versatility of techniques available to prepare it. This which can be easily procured from the internet can even be made at home contrary to past trends where they were only made in remote areas or in forests at a large scale. This serves as an impasse. In Karnataka, the ban was placed in the year 2007, however, the sale of toddy is allowed in two districts — Udupi and Dakshina Kannada. At the beginning of May 2023, 10 deaths were reported in North Tamil Nadu due to the consumption of arrack. Six special police teams have been announced to find the source of this methanol-based brew and arrest irreverent people instrumental in this spurious liquor-drinking travesty.</p>.<p>People often get befuddled between ethanol and methanol. Ethanol is the principal alcohol drink found in drinks such as vodka, while methanol, a variant of alcohol is highly toxic. When it enters the human body through locally prepared drinks such as arrack, methanol breaks down first into formaldehyde and then into formic acid and its salts. This can lead to severe effects such as blindness, brain damage, failure of organs such as kidneys and is sometimes fatal enough to result in death. Since it is not uncommon for arrack to contain dangerous amounts of methanol, arrack consumption often leads to poisoning and consequent mortalities. Many tourists have died from methanol poisoning in Bali. Thus, it is important to be aware of the distinction. Both the chemicals are colour and odour free. If you feel unsure about a drink proffered, burn the spirit in a small teaspoon or another metal container. If the flame is blue coloured, it is ethanol and if the flame is yellow like, it indicates methanol. This simple test could probably save you and your loved ones from methanol poisoning.</p>.<p><em><span class="italic">(The author is a multidisciplinary professional who works in the UK.)</span></em></p>
<p>Whilst reminiscing her childhood memories, my mom recalled a local incident of arrack poisoning. She went on to explain how rampant this was back then. They do say books find their way to you. Just shortly after I had had this conversation with my mom, I came across a book that was a finalist in the James Beard Award — <span class="italic">The Language of Food: A linguist reads the menu</span> by Dan Jurafsky. Least did I expect to find something about arrack which he refers to as “an early ancestor of rum, distilling the fermented rice together with the molasses and palm wine.” He traces the origin of this word back to the language of Arabic in which Arag refers to sweat, related to words for other distilled spirits like anise-flavoured Levantine arak and Croatian plum brandy rakia.</p>.<p>This distilled alcoholic drink is locally made typically in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia. This is made from the fermented sap of coconut flowers or sugarcane and sometimes includes a grain such as red rice or a fruit depending on where it is made. To cope with the growing list of customers, the Genoese merchants made this spirit a byproduct of sugarcane to meet the demand for consumption. Regardless of origin, the predominance of this drink in the Asian and Eastern Mediterranean regions is due to the proliferation of distillation knowledge throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. The fermented juice of the coconut flower from which arrack is distilled is referred to as Toddy.</p>.<p>Back then, a drink based on arrack had been offered by Emperor Jahangir to the English diplomat Sir Thomas Roe. The drink had been strong enough to make him sneeze. I came across this Megillah when reading the book, <span class="italic">A Historical Dictionary of Indian Food</span> by K T Achaya, a historian. Arrack was banned in the state of Kerala in 1996. The Kerala Excise manual volume 2, chapter 12 is dedicated to arrack. Despite the ban, excise officials say that arrack is still prevalent in many regions of Kerala. This they say is mainly due to the lack of affordability for branded liquor. In 2016, 1,76,381 litres of wash and 4,105 litres of arrack were seized and destroyed by the Kerala Excise Department with a similar incident occurring during raids in 2018. The excise officials feel that there is a growing market for local arrack due to the versatility of techniques available to prepare it. This which can be easily procured from the internet can even be made at home contrary to past trends where they were only made in remote areas or in forests at a large scale. This serves as an impasse. In Karnataka, the ban was placed in the year 2007, however, the sale of toddy is allowed in two districts — Udupi and Dakshina Kannada. At the beginning of May 2023, 10 deaths were reported in North Tamil Nadu due to the consumption of arrack. Six special police teams have been announced to find the source of this methanol-based brew and arrest irreverent people instrumental in this spurious liquor-drinking travesty.</p>.<p>People often get befuddled between ethanol and methanol. Ethanol is the principal alcohol drink found in drinks such as vodka, while methanol, a variant of alcohol is highly toxic. When it enters the human body through locally prepared drinks such as arrack, methanol breaks down first into formaldehyde and then into formic acid and its salts. This can lead to severe effects such as blindness, brain damage, failure of organs such as kidneys and is sometimes fatal enough to result in death. Since it is not uncommon for arrack to contain dangerous amounts of methanol, arrack consumption often leads to poisoning and consequent mortalities. Many tourists have died from methanol poisoning in Bali. Thus, it is important to be aware of the distinction. Both the chemicals are colour and odour free. If you feel unsure about a drink proffered, burn the spirit in a small teaspoon or another metal container. If the flame is blue coloured, it is ethanol and if the flame is yellow like, it indicates methanol. This simple test could probably save you and your loved ones from methanol poisoning.</p>.<p><em><span class="italic">(The author is a multidisciplinary professional who works in the UK.)</span></em></p>