feni (or fenny, or fenim) , one of the only spirits that can rival baijiu in pungency, is made in the Indian state of Goa from the fruit of the cashew tree, Anacardium occidentale. It is generally distilled in copper or clay pot stills and rests briefly in miri-wood tanks before bottling. In a remarkable example of technological conservatism, the clay stills are essentially identical in design to the ones used in India over two thousand years ago. See distillation, history.
Originally, feni was a grade of spirit, not a type. The Portuguese colonial government that ruled Goa from 1510 to 1961 (and found the natives already drinking distilled spirits when they arrived) recognized three grades of spirit, making no distinction whether they were made from cashew apples or palm wine, which was also popular: urraca, distilled once; fechado, distilled twice; and feni, distilled three times and thus of appreciably higher proof and purity. By the twentieth century, however, the strongest grade had eclipsed the other two. and the cashew spirit eclipsed the palm one, and thus the name “feni” was awarded to the strong (or at least relatively so) cashew spirit that is still consumed today, although now it is only distilled twice. Indeed, since 2009 Goan feni has been protected by a government geographical indicator (the only spirit India protects thus), forbidding it to be made elsewhere in India or from anything other than cashew fruit.
Numerous brands of feni are still sold in Goa (and practically nowhere else), although an estimated 75 percent of what is produced goes straight from small-scale local distilleries (some four thousand of which are estimated to be in operation) to bars and retailers without ever seeing a label. Of the bottled brands, Big Boss, PVV, and Madame Rosa, controlled by the Vaz family, are sourced from various of those small producers in a negociant system and are the most traditional in production and style. The most modern, Kazkar, is lighter and less pungent and is exported as a mixing spirit to America and Europe, albeit as yet in small quantities. Even at its least aromatic, feni is a taste that takes some acquiring.
Negocios externos. Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional, 1879.
Zuzarte, Joseph. “The Heady Rise of Cashew Fenni,” Goa Streets, March 14, 2013. http://goastreets.com/the-heady-rise-of-cashew-feni/ (accessed March 19, 2021).
By: David Wondrich