TUO NIFARO, AN ALCOHOL BEVERAGE OF NIAS
When talking about the alcoholic beverage, each region in Indonesia has
their own traditional alcoholic beverage. Bali is well known with its Brem,
Jogjakarta with its Lapen, Manado with its Sagoer, and Nias island is well
known with its Tuo Nifarö.
Tuo Nifarö is not like Sake from Japan and alcoholic beverages from other regions which
are made from fermented rice. This Tuo
Nifarö is made from distilled Coconut Inflorescence
sap. This sap is collected from the coconut inflorescence which is cut twice a
day (morning and late afternoon) by Sogai
Ohi, the name of people who usually collect the sap. This sap is usually
collected in the morning. Normally, Sogai
Ohi climbs at least 10 coconut trees to get 20 litres of sap.
After collecting the
sap, Sogai Ohi will put it in a can
which is connected with two spliced bamboos. The distillation process of Tuo Nifarö then begun. It needs 20 liters of sap to produce 5
bottles of Tuo Nifarö (± 3,5 liters). The can should be heated by using
wooden fire for 1 hour to get the evaporation of the sap then continued with
condensation in the bamboo. It takes 5 hours to distille these 5 bottles of Tuo Nifarö.
Sadly that those Sogai Ohi are endangered, only some more left. Some of them have altered their profession due to avoiding the risk of climbing coconut trees every day, doing other safe and more promising jobs.
Sadly that those Sogai Ohi are endangered, only some more left. Some of them have altered their profession due to avoiding the risk of climbing coconut trees every day, doing other safe and more promising jobs.
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| Process of distillation by using wooden fire |
After the distillation, Tuo Nifarö is stored in glass bottles to preserve
its
quality. Level of alcohol Högö Duo (the first
bottle) reaches 90% of alcohol. Högö duo cannot be consumed directly because
the alcohol level is very high
(normally is used for treatment of diabetes and stroke by the local people). To
be safely consumed, these 5 bottles should be mixed together so that the alcohol level
decreased to 35-50%.
It
is usually consumed during feasts in Nias and also as the substitution for beer
which is more expensive then Tuo Nifarö. A bottle of mixed Tuo Nifarö is
only IDR 16.000 (US$ 1,7) while the non mixed, the first bottle is IDR 60.000
(US$ 6,3). The benefit of this Tuo Nifarö
is that it doesn’t contain with chemical and is processed naturally. It is worth to try this Tuo Nifarö when traveling to Nias as long as not drinking it too much.
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