Indonesia , a country in Southeast Asia comprised of more than 1,700 islands, was at the center of prolonged and often brutal colonial expeditions by European powers. Early attempts at colonization were made by both the Portuguese and the English, but control was eventually secured by the Dutch.
The production of spirits in Indonesia reflects its multicultural heritage. Alcohol was welcomed by Hindu, Buddhist, Chinese, and European populations on the islands. Islam, however, eventually became the dominant religion, and Indonesia is now home to the largest population of Muslims in the world, creating tension surrounding the consumption of spirited drinks. Despite Muslim proscriptions against alcohol, Europeans arriving in Indonesia found that the enjoyment of spirits was widespread. Dutch colonists landing on their first mission there in 1596 reported that the local Chinese community produced “much aqua vitae of rice and Cocus [coconut sap], which the Iauars [Javans] by night come to buy, and drinke it secretly, for by Mahomets law it is forbidden to them.”
Locally produced drinks include beer, rice wine, palm wine known as tuak, a distilled spirit made from tuak called sopi, and ciu, a rum made from molasses. Much of this rum is illegally distilled in small improvised stills, diverted from the legal production of industrial alcohol. There is also a significant amount of arak beras, “rice spirit,” made mostly on Bali. Much of this is essentially neutral spirit that has been flavored with fruits and berries, similarly to what is done with lambanog in the neighboring Philippines, but there is also an By far the most famous spirit produced in Indonesia is the rum relative Batavia arrack, made in Java from local molasses and rice. This was one of the world’s major spirits from the 1600s well into the 1900s. It is still produced in small quantities, but the export market for it is not large, and the domestic market is shrinking fast. In fact, today the nation’s Muslim majority increasingly seeks to restrict alcohol, succeeding recently in banning its sale in small stores. High-profile cases of poisonings from poorly distilled black market spirits have also led to warnings to tourists to avoid drinking illicit drams. Yet the tourism business, especially in Hindu-majority Bali, remains a strong opposing force to the contemporary prohibition efforts. Martin, Scott C., ed. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Alcohol. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2014. Owens, David J., ed. Indigenous Fermented Foods of Southeast Asia. Boca Raton, FL: CRC, 2014. Wondrich, David. Punch: The Delights (and Dangers) of the Flowing Bowl. New York: Perigee, 2010. By: Jacob Grier and David Wondrich