… Yes, I like piña coladas
And gettin’ caught in the rain
I’m not much into health food
I am into champagne
I’ve got to meet you by tomorrow noon
And cut through all this red tape
At a bar called O’Malley’s
Where we’ll plan our escape….
Rupert Holmes, “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)”
This article is anachronistic. I realized as I was writing this article that this wine is the first wine that was ever brought to my attention. I was a child at the time, but I never tried it until a month or so ago. I had also finished writing about all of my wines when I tried this one. Trying this wine made me realize I had to add it to my list of 99 wines. That meant I had to take something else out, but I promise to share that wine with you in a future article.
69. Palm wine – It took me 60 years to try it.
I was born in California. Honestly, my family stayed there just long enough for me to be born. We moved to Lagos, Nigeria, when I was just a toddler. I started school in Lagos, Nigeria’s then-capital. I still have many fond memories of the years my family and I spent there. One of my favorite memories was October 1, 1960. That was Nigeria’s Independence Day, when it ceased being a British colony and became a sovereign nation.
There were parades and revelry throughout the city. Nnamdi Azikiwe, commonly known as “Zik” was the first president, and he was everywhere. The best part of the ceremonies for me was a beautiful Nigerian-Welsh singer who would attain international renown just four years later, for singing the title song for the third (and best) James Bond film, Goldfinger. She would go on to set a record (no pun intended) by being the only singer to sing three James Bond themes. The singer was the incomparable Dame Shirley Bassey. That was the first time I saw her live. It would not be my last, and she remains my favorite female singer as a result.
Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the fifth most populous in the world, ranking just after the United States. It is mineral-rich, with vast resources of gold, diamonds, timber, and especially oil and natural gas. Nigerians are extremely hard-working, highly intelligent, and very well-educated. Please ignore the “Nigerian prince” trope.
Lagos is an enormous, bustling megacity, having overtaken Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as the most populous city on the continent. The city’s population is approaching 28 million. Nigeria’s capital was moved from Lagos to Abuja in 1991, although Lagos remains Nigeria’s financial and political powerhouse.
Nigerians love to party. If you put two Nigerians together a party will begin. So, it makes sense that Nigerians also enjoy alcohol, despite Nigeria having a population that is approximately 54% Muslim. Palm wine is unique to Western Africa, particularly Nigeria. Researchers have found evidence that palm wine dates back as far as 16,000 B.C.E. This would make palm wine one of the world’s oldest alcoholic beverages.
The wine is made from sap that is collected from palm trees. The liquid is placed in bottle-shaped containers called calabashes or gourds for fermentation. The calabashes are placed in the upper parts of the tall palm trees under the fronds as a part of the fermentation process.
The wine begins fermenting within hours, as the palm sap naturally contains yeast. The wine cannot be fermented for more than a day or two, because it will quickly turn to vinegar. However, palm wine can be distilled for up to a day longer, which substantially increases the alcohol content.
Typically, fermented palm wine has only about 2% – 4% alcohol (ABV) after a few hours, whereas distilled palm wine has around 15% ABV. The result is a milky-white drink that looks like a piña colada. It is slightly alcoholic, and higher or lower in alcohol, depending on whether it is distilled.
Our second house in Lagos was my favorite. The house was situated on a lagoon, with a large mango tree and several tall, thin coconut palm trees between our house and the water. As a small boy, I marveled as I watched the sap tappers. They would use long straps wrapped around their waists and the palm tree and rapidly move the rope up whilst hopping to the top of the tree. The tappers would then place a bamboo tap in the tree to drain the sap. They would tie a calabash to the tree to collect the palm sap. The tappers return within two days to retrieve the fermented sap, which is either sold as a low alcohol beverage or taken away to be distilled. An average palm tree can yield up to a liter of wine per day. My father, who was never afraid to try new things, would often buy palm wine from the men after they scrambled down the trees.
My brother Bert and I were having our regular Sunday brunch about three or four months ago, and we were reminiscing about the time we spent in Nigeria. Somehow, the subject of palm wine came up. I asked him if he had ever tried it. He could not recall if he had. I doubt if he had, because he was only about 11 or 12 years old when we left Lagos for Baghdad. I had never tried palm wine, but I came to the realization that palm wine was probably the first wine I ever knew.
Days later, my son, Alejandro, came to town for a visit, and he wanted to go to a restaurant for lunch. He selected a lovely West African restaurant called Calabash African Kitchen that I had never tried. The restaurant was charming, with a sizable bar and Nigerian music videos playing on a large screen. We chatted with the charming owner, Oulay Fisher, who is Senegalese, as we perused the menu. I saw they had many dishes I recalled from my childhood. They had Egusi Soup, Oxtail Stew, Jollof rice, Fufu, and an assortment of seafood.
In the section under “drinks,” there it was. They had palm wine! I told Oulay that my brother and I had just discussed palm wine at brunch only a few days earlier. Oulay does not drink, so she has never tried palm wine. However, she said that her Nigerian customers always ordered bottles of it whilst dining. A Nigerian customer at an adjacent table, who had overheard our conversation chimed in, saying how much he enjoyed palm wine. I told my son that I could not try it for the first time without my brother. I called Bert and told him we would have to come to the restaurant so we could try palm wine.
Bert and I went to the restaurant the following week. We ordered our meal and a bottle of palm wine. Bert and I toasted and had our first taste of palm wine. It had the white milky color that I recalled. The color was similar to Araq or Ouzo after you add water, but the texture was very different. That is where my expectations ended. This is a wine that was creamy and had a startlingly sweet, aromatic nose, unlike the anise or fennel aromas of Araq or Ouzo. The taste was even more startling. Firstly, it was slightly effervescent. Secondly, it was sweet and mildly acidic, with notes of tropical fruits, particularly banana and pineapple. Palm wine is exported in bottles. However, it is best served fresh, but it can quickly turn sour as it ages.
Palm wine is an easily acquired taste, and I can see why it is so popular. I just wish I had not waited 60 years to try it.
Cheers!
