Urrak plantation hopping in Goa

The barter of freshly filled, re-used bottles, with a proclamation of ‘this is the best urrak’ (usually from the villages in Quepem and Canacona), is how greetings are exchanged this time of the year among locals. For a fleeting few weeks in April and May, this lightly spiked precursor to Feni has a parched Goan population (including us) literally on the boil.

To drink urrak is to know how — best appreciated at its source, this first-distill fruity, fermented drink is what would eventually be bottled as Feni, after second distillation.