Palm Wine Tapping

Palm wine tapping is the technique of collecting and spontaneously fermenting the sap of palm trees to produce a mildly alcoholic beverage. A tapper cuts the flower stalk of the palm and fastens a container to the cut stump to collect the dripping sap. Fermentation begins almost immediately after collection, driven by wild yeasts present in the air and often in residue left in the collecting container, and within about two hours the sap yields a sweet, aromatic wine of up to four percent alcohol. Left to ferment longer, up to a day, the wine develops a stronger, more sour and acidic character, and fermentation beyond that point turns the liquid into vinegar rather than wine.