Basi is the sugarcane wine of the Ilocano people of northwestern Luzon in the Philippines. Rum is the world’s best-known sugarcane drink, but rum is distilled; basi is fermented and aged, like grape wine. It was already being made by the early 17th century (Mura & Tanimura, 1994). What sets it apart is that brewers add dried tree bark to the cane juice. The bark gives basi its red-brown colour and astringency, and, as Japanese researchers found, it’s also what keeps the wine from spoiling in the tropical heat.
How Basi Is Made
Methods vary from area to area, but the core is the same: fresh cane juice is boiled down to concentrate it, dried and crushed bark is added, and the juice ferments for about a month, then ages for about a year. The usual barks are samac (Macaranga grandifolia, bark and fruit), duhat (Java plum, Syzygium cumini) and tangal. Most producers use two or three together, and the blend differs between villages and makers, which is part of why no two basis taste alike (Mura & Tanimura, 1994). Traditionally it ferments and ages in earthenware jars (burnay).
Why the Bark Matters
Basi ferments naturally, in farm sheds, with no microbial control – conditions in which a sugary juice would normally turn sour or rot. Mura and Tanimura brewed basi with and without samac bark, using a bubod starter (the Philippine rice-wine starter also used for tapuy). Without bark, lactic acid bacteria grew quickly at the start. With bark, they didn’t grow at all (Mura & Tanimura, 1994). Extracts of every bark tested strongly inhibited lactic and acetic acid bacteria, the microbes that spoil wine into sour mash or vinegar. Yeasts are less sensitive, and at the polyphenol levels found in basi (1–2 mg per ml), samac bark held back the bacteria while actually helping the yeast grow. Saccharomyces cerevisiae did the fermenting. The bark’s polyphenols also protect the wine from oxidation, which is what lets basi age for one to two years.
Strength and Taste
After 12 days, the bark batch had reached 12.7% alcohol, against 12.3% without bark, and still held 11.2% sugar. The bark batch contained 116 mg of polyphenols per 100 ml, and its astringency balanced the sweetness so it was pleasant to drink, while the bark-free wine tasted only of sugar. Sweet styles of basi can keep more than 10% sugar even after ageing. The bark also turned the wine a clear red-brown, like red wine, and helped it settle bright (Mura & Tanimura, 1994). The researchers compare it to red winemaking, where grape skins and seeds give colour, tannin and protection in the same way.
The Basi Revolt
Under Spanish rule, a basi monopoly was instituted in 1786: it regulated drinking and forced makers to sell at a low official price. In 1807, Ilocanos from several towns of Ilocos Norte rose against it, and the revolt was crushed. In 1821 the Vigan painter Esteban Villanueva recorded the uprising in a series of 14 oil paintings – from the gathering of the rebels to a bloody battle at Bantaoay and the capture and execution of the rebels – now in the collection of the National Museum of the Philippines (CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art).
Making It at Home
We don’t give a recipe card for basi: no published source gives a tested ratio of bark to juice for home brewing, and the bark is the one ingredient that decides whether the wine ferments cleanly. If you can get the barks from Ilocano makers, the traditional order is boiled-down cane juice, then bark, a month of fermentation and a long, airtight ageing. Basi is a wine of around 12% alcohol, and sweet styles stay sugary. Its relatives on this site include Ethiopian tej, a honey wine bittered with the leaves of a native buckthorn, and West African palm wine. Fresh, lightly fermented sugarcane juice is guarapo.