Cassava Wine - My Mom's Recipe

I don't know if there are other people who makes cassava wine, but so far, I haven't seen anyone making this except my mom.

We call it binubudan ay pad-paddi and sometimes, tapey ay pad-paddi. I think it is more appropriate to use the former for tapey specifically refers to rice wine while binubudan means "yeasted" (something fermented with yeast). The yeast used here is the local bobod - rice cake yeast. Cassava wine can also be called arak di pad-paddi since any alcoholic drink is called arak in Igorot.

Ooops, other Igorot term for cassava is balinghoy (like some Visayans do) and kamoteng kahoy (which is also the Tagalog and Ilocano term).

My mother made cassava wine more for the fermented cassava itself than the alcoholic beverage. Just like tapey, the ingredient used in making the wine is consumable specially on the early stages of fermentation. Mom would take out and serve most of the cassava from the fourth until the seventh day of the processing. The unconsumed stocks will be left for additional ten days or more to obtain a strong wine.

Cassava wine is easy to make and the process is very similar to tapey making. The cassava roots are first peeled, washed, cut into strips about four inches long (stout ones are cut into half or four) then boiled until cooked. The cooked cassava are then spread in a container, allowed to cool down and then sprinkled profusely with bobod. My mom use to roll the cassava in the pulverized bobod for even coating. Onwards, the mixture is transferred in a gusi (a glazed earthen jar), covered tightly, and stored in a dry, warm place. If there is no available gusi, plastic and glass jar will do.

After 4-5 days of fermentation, the binubudan ay pad-paddi is now ready to be served. The cassava is eaten as it is and good for afternoon snack or dinner desert. Its alcohol content is still low and the sweetness of the root crop is enhanced during the fermenting period thus children can also enjoy the food.

Fermented cassava exudes less wine than fermented rice, hence, it has to be stored longer. Usually it takes more than two weeks fermenting time to have cassava wine while it only takes a week to produce tapey. The longer the wine is kept, more wine is produced, sweetness diminishes and the alcohol content increases.