COCO WINE

BAHALINA "COCONUT WINE"

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Coconut Wine or called as Tuba is known in the whole Philippines sepcially in Visaysa and Mindanao Islands. The making of Tuba starts from a mananangot (in Visayas) and mangagarit (in Luzon) who's the one who climbs the coconut tree and and finds newly sprouting coconut flower or called as "takong". the bud of the of the coconut tree is cut off and pushed down to easily collect the dripping juice into the container. Container is installed in the tree which it hangs and covered so that no water can contaminate the coconut sap when it is raining. After some days the sap will be collected to make coconut wine.

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Coconut Wine in Philippines has two colors, White and red. The white one is produced in Luzon which they call it "Lambanog" and the Red one is produced in the islands of Visayas and Mindanao. They have their own style of making Coconut Wine on how it it becomes White and Red and it depends on which place it is. 

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In Visayas and Mindanao Islands, Coconut wine is called Tuba, Bahal or Bahalina. In Luzon it is mostly called Lambanog. The main difference is the blend of colors. Lambanog in Luzon is a pure sap (no barok mix) almost colorless or milky white in color occasionally described as coconut Vodka. In Visayas and Mindanao particularly in Leyte, Tuba is a product of mixing barok (reddish color bark of mangrove tree) to the coconut sap, which makes Tuba in red color and at times called  the Coconut Red Wine.

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In some places, they held a compition in whose Tuba wine or Bahalina taste so delicious that satisfies the taste of the judges. Bahalina is a coconut wine that is stocked for more than 2 years and is refined for how many times. Bahalina is a sweet coconut wine and it is quite expensive than the fresh coconut wine, but majority of the customers prefer the bahalina because of its smell and taste like a imported wine.


Source: https://triptheislands.com/food-and-drinks/where-to-find-the-best-tuba-in-the-philippines