Froth, Fire, and Fermentation: The Long Story of Feni

The Floating Feni Experience

Our visit to Goa this time took us to the Floating Feni Experience - The Table in the Water at Fazenda Cazulo hosted by Tyson Da Cunha.

This experience began with a walk through the farm and distillery, offering a hands-on introduction to Feni before moving into a guided tasting of Cashew Feni, Coconut Feni, and Dukshiri Feni and an array of feni cocktails. The tasting is a personal masterclass on how to appreciate the spirit: its aroma, its strength, its textures, and the way it carries the character of Goa.

Participants are then led to a natural freshwater spring, where a table is set beneath a canopy of tree. With cool water kissing your feet and occasional fish tickling your toes, the tasting cannot be more immersive than this (literally speaking as well!). A curated platter of Goan sweets and savouries are paired with the sight, smell and taste of Feni.

Why Feni Matters in Goa

Feni is GI tagged to Goa, which makes it even more important to understand why it holds a special place in the State. Tyson adds, “Long before the word “Feni” appeared in written records, Dutch traveller Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, in his account Itinerario, described a distilled beverage from Goa, though he did not call it Feni by name. That absence is telling: it suggests that distillation existed here before the Portuguese arrived, with the name catching up only later.”

Before Feni took the form we recognise today, there was Sur, or Surah, a fermented palm toddy that was later distilled into something stronger. In that humble precursor lies Feni's true origin story: not as a colonial invention, but as an evolution of something ancient and deeply rooted in Goan life.

Cashew Feni's story however is tied to Portuguese-era agricultural exchange. When cashews, native to Brazil, reached Goa through Portuguese trade routes around 500 years ago, they changed the landscape of Goan food and drink and eventually became central to the production of Cashew Feni.

Even the name “Feni” speaks to its character: it is linked to the Konkani word “phen,” meaning froth, and to the Sanskrit “phena,” referring to the light bubbles that appear when the drink is poured or shaken. It remains a strong spirit, typically associated with high alcohol content, and is best enjoyed thoughtfully.

How Feni Is Made

The process begins with the selection of ripe cashew fruit - the quality of brew depends on using apples that are sufficiently mature and full of juice. They are never plucked from the tree but are picked up as they fall on the ground.

Sorted cashew apples are crushed to a pulp to release the juice – usually crushed by foot though many now use motor crushes to speed up the work. This juice is then transferred to earthen pots usually buried in the ground – to ensure little movement and temperature control, it is left to ferment around 8-10 days. The fermented juice develops character needed for distillation.

As the fermented juice or neero is then boiled in an earthen or metal vat “bhatti or bhann), its vapours travel through pipes submerged in water tanks. Cooling causes vapours to condense into liquid, which is collected as the first distillate. “Neero' undergoes a three-stage distillation process with each stage increasing the alcohol potency. The first distillate is a light drink called ‘urrak with about 15% alcohol content. This urrak is further mixed with ‘neero' and boiled anew to make the second distillate is called ‘cazulo' and the third or final distillate is termed fenny or feni.

Feni Today: Revival, Ritual, and Identity

Feni has survived because it is more than a relic of the past: it belongs to harvest gatherings, festivals, family rituals, folk memory, and the everyday pride of Goan identity. It has long carried associations with warmth, digestion, and simple home remedies, though these are best understood as cultural practices rather than medical claims. Its modern identity has also been shaped by the families and distillers who brought it from household tradition into public recognition — from Hansel Vaz of Cazulo Premium Feni and the Macwan-Valentine family behind Big Boss, to Guru Dattaram Bhakta, credited with securing Feni's GI tag, Hendrix of Fidalgo, remembered for bottling Feni commercially, and Tukaram Haldankar of Kazulana, whose life spans toddy tapping, distilling, and stewardship of the craft.

Around them, tradition has continued to evolve: stone mills have given way to mixers, foot-crushing to mechanical crushers, matchsticks to lighters, coconut shells to steel vessels, and makeshift harvest tools to modern ones. Yet at its core, Feni remains unchanged — cashews are still gathered only after they fall, the spirit still depends on wild fermentation, and true Feni still rests on double distillation.