Palm Wine Toddy Collectors At Work, Democratic Republic Of The Congo, Africa

Palm wine is known as emu, nkwu, oguro in Nigeria; poyo in Sierra Leone, nsamba in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; nsafufuo in Ghana; kallu in South India; Htan Yay (ထန်းရည်) in Myanmar; matango in Cameroon; tuak in North Sumatra, Indonesia; mnazi in the Mijikenda language of Kenya; goribon (Rungus) in Sabah, Borneo; vino de coyol in Central America; and tubâ in the Philippines, Borneo and Mexico. In the Philippines, tube and "Kallu" in Tamil refers both to the freshly harvested, sweetish cloudy-white sap and the one with the red lauan-tree tan bark colorant. In Leyte, the red tubâ is aged with the tan bark for up to six months to two years, until it gets dark red and tapping its glass container gives a sound that does not suddenly stop. This type of tubâ is called bahal (for tubâ aged this way for up to six months) and bahalina (for tubâ aged thus for up to a year or more). Toddy is also consumed in Sri Lanka and Myanmar.
Tapping
The sap is extracted and collected by a tapper. Typically the sap is collected from the cut flower of the palm tree. A container is fastened to the flower stump to collect the sap. The white liquid that initially collects tends to be very sweet and non-alcoholic before it is fermented. An alternate method is the felling of the entire tree. Where this is practiced, a fire is sometimes lit at the cut end to facilitate the collection of sap.