Friday, January 23, 2009

Tuak

Tuak is a traditional alcoholic beverage for the Ibans of Sarawak. It is basically a rice wine made of rice, yeast and sugar.

It is quite hard to get a tuak as one will need to travel to the Iban's longhouses to get a taste of Tuak. It's been a while since I last tasted tuak. I think I was around 16 when I visited a longhouses and been served with tuak. Tuak taste like XO or Martell back then and my throat was virtually burned down to my stomach.

However, I stumbled upon this Copial Tuak from a souvenir shop at Kuching International Airport. It costs RM 10 and I think I was overcharged for it.

It's alcohol content is 12%, just like any other wine in the market. Tuak is best served chilled. I was indeed surprised when I first consume Copial Tuak. It was very tasty and sweet. There is no burn feeling at my throat. In fact, Copial Tuak is pleasant to consume. It is not that challenging like what I had during my longhouse visit.

I have to say I am rather disappointed with Copial Tuak. Maybe I should made another visit to the Iban's longhouse to get another taste of the original tuak!

19 comments:

Annoymous said...

Ah 12% is high.. But it looks like apple vinegar to me.. haha

Grace said...

Drink moderately, Borneo. :)

Anonymous said...

I like tuak! :-)

kegler747 said...

I heard about this drink. I want to taste the real thing and not the commercially available.

escape said...

havent seen one in the philippines yet.

Anonymous said...

ooohhh sounds nice...but it is not available where i am.

good day! was here!

Buwau98 said...

Wow
The original long house tuak is really nice. The one you tasted might be already aged.
Once upon a time, tuak salai was my fav.
Yes, some long house have solar panels, and in Sibu you have quite a number.

Nanaybelen said...

i have never seen that wine here especially in the duty free

TNH said...

i ever visit the long house somewhere near Sibu during Gawai. The tuak they let me try really test good. I wonder is that really the tuak they use to drink because for what i know tuak is an easy drunk alcoholic drink even with just a small cup but i did not drunk although i'm not the person that can stand alcoholic drink.

Bram Adimas said...

tuak is also a alcohollic drink in my hometown, Bali. is there any relationships between the ibans and balinese in the past?

Josephine said...

hmm, safe to be consumed or not?

Borneo Falcon said...

Tuak is a strong wine I gather. I plan to cycle to a long house one day and with any luck, purchase a bottle of Tuak from them.

i have no idea how Tuak is made but I think it is safe for consumption

I thought Tuak is made by the Dayaks in Borneo. Did not realise there is Tuak in Bali as well. Hope to check it out in the future

Bram Adimas said...

but the difference between the ibans tuak and balinese tuak is on its taste.the balinese tuak tasted more like beer, that's some people said. i never tasted balinese or ibans tuak before.

Anonymous said...

In North Sumatera there is also a traditional alcoholic beverage namely tuak. vary famous here. especially on Batak ethnic.
but the color is different. Tuak in North Sumatera is almost white. I do not exactly the alcohol content, but if you drink 2-4 glass of tuak here..you may get drunk.

pusangkalye said...

wow---a traditional drink but is already commercialized--reminds me of the suju of Korea....

Johnny Ong said...

not bad ... the tuak is sold in nice packaging

Bram Adimas said...

perhaps the word "tuak" was widely used in malay archipelago referring to alcohollic drink

Unknown said...

you can buy fresh tuak in KL la why you go and buy the ones that are brewed in the kilang. Try ngiruptuak@wordpress.com. THey produce locally Iban ppl.

Unknown said...

The staff on the picture is Tuak, the stuff that burned your throat in the longhouse is LANGKAU, it is a destilate of Tuak, it's alcohol content is much like martell or vodka or whisky hence the burn.

The brand on the picture is not the best it is passable but much too sweet. There is a better brand called Borneo tuak in big 0.75L bottles (same as wine) but I do not know who makes it.

There is another drink also reffered to tuak which is made from liquid drained from palm flowers.