The toddy or palm wine, which is a beverage made from the highly nutritious sap of the coconut palm trees, has been consumed in Seychelles since the beginning of settlement.
As a young kid growing up on Cousin Island , where my dad, Maxime, who was the island administrator then, used to give us a small cup of freshly tapped toddy every now and then as it was considered to be a mild laxative and generally good for the health. Cousin Island, at that time, late 1950s, belonged to Mr. France Jumeau who also owned Nouvelle Découverte on Praslin Island, including the Vallée de Mai.
How do we tap toddy in Seychelles?
Traditionally, toddy consumption is deeply rooted in the Seychelles culture and traditions and thus was, for a long time, the most frequently consumed alcoholic beverage on the islands. It has now been overtaken by other forms of alcohol. It was, and still is on a smaller extent, enjoyed quietly at home or with friends in a local bar, or lakanbiz; at birth celebrations; at funeral wakes; and after a hard days work. It also played an integral role during traditional marriage ceremonies.
Toddy is locally known as kalou and the word originates from “Kallu” in Tamil, which refers to the freshly harvested, cloudy looking sweet juice or sap. It is obtained by shaving and tapping the unopened spadix of the coconut palm. The spadix, or baba koko, is the flower spike that is enclosed by a woody sheath called the spathe, locally known as zanponn.
Shaved Spadix 
Young Spadix- Baba Koko
The tapping involves the collection of the sap from the inflorescence that forms the spadix when the ends are shaved off. The spadix is considered ready for tapping when the mature one is just about to burst. The female flower within the unopened spadix causes a swelling at the base and its appearance indicates the appropriate stage for tapping.
The toddy tapping process
Searching and choosing the best coconut tree
The first step in the toddy tapping process involves the picking of a blooming coconut tree that is bearing healthy coconut fruit buds. Once the tree is selected, the toddy tapper, or tirerkalou, who always carries a razor-sharp knife, or kouto kalou, strapped to his waistband , climbs the palm tree to reach the crown which is where the leaves join at the top of the round hard stem. The tree is usually climbed by means of a makeshift ladder, or lesel, if it is a short tree or by steps that are cut in the tree trunk itself by means of a sharp axe if the tree is a tall one. We will discuss the different ways to climb a coconut tree in a future post.
Choosing the spathe
The tapper searches for the best, young, green and unopened spathe, while also choosing the most comfortable sitting position for the job. This is usually a high risk time as the tapper may encounter all sorts of insects and rodents that might be living in the crown.
The next stage is for the tapper, with his skillful use of the knife, to remove fibres from the back of the nearest leaf’s main stalk. The fibres are used to tightly wind round the selected unopened flower spadix – about four to eight centimetres from the pointed end. This prevents the flower from opening.
Cutting the Spathe
The spathe is delicately removed a little piece at a time, exposing the spadix. Some toddy tapper prefers not to remove all the spathe in one go as it helps to hold the spadix in shape and prevent it from splitting open. Every time a piece of the spathe is removed the exposed spadix is tied tightly. That same end of the spadix is then cut and shaved to obtain a flat, clean surface. This is where the toddy is expected to ooze and trickle out.
Twice daily visits
Subsequently, the toddy tapper will continue to visit that particular coconut palm tree twice daily to continue to shave thin slice from the flower spadix. The creole term used for the process is ronnyen, derived form the French ‘rogner’ meaning to trim and cut back . During that shaving process the toddy tapper also moves and tightens the fibre holding the spadix, winding backwards accordingly so that the spadix remains tightly packed and closed. This ritual is performed twice daily until the toddy starts flowing generously. On those nurturing visits, the toddy tapper slowly bends the spadix until it points downwards. This is done so that the bamboo container or banbou kalou, when attached to the spadix to collect the sap, hangs vertically and no sap spills out. Sometimes the tapper has to tie the spadix down to a lower branch with a rope to keep it at a horizontal level. This rope was called the lartini, a word that has now disappeared from the Creole vocabulary.
Traditional Bamboo Container in Tree 
New Method of Collecting Toddy
The tapper will also cover the top of the bamboo container with a piece of tanmi cloth, obtained from the tree itself, to protect the toddy from bees and other insects and impurities.
The collection of the toddy
Depending on climatic conditions, it may take two to seven days for the toddy to start flowing. Normally on the second day, the toddy tapper skillfully attaches his bamboo container at the end of the spadix to collect any flow of toddy. Depending on how healthy the tree is, an experienced toddy tapper may tap toddy from more than one spadix from the same coconut palm tree. Each new bud can be used until it ceases to provide sap or if it gets infected. A healthy, newly tapped plant will provide sweet, sparkling and revitalizing toddy for the first two days after the flow has started.
The Yield
The yield of toddy gradually increases and when it reaches the maximum, the collection is made twice in a day. A healthy coconut palm tree may give a yield of two to three litres of toddy per spadix per day. The flow of toddy from the inflorescence continues for about one month or even more. During this period, the second spathe is also brought into production.
The preparation of the toddy
Freshly tapped toddy is filtered before it is ready to be served. The filtration is done when the toddy is being bottled. The process is simple. A cloth or a piece of soft coconut tanmi is inserted in a funnel that sits on top of the bottle and the toddy poured through it.
Coconut Funnel- Lantonwar 
Coconut Cloth- Tanmi
The alcoholic strength of the toddy
The toddy, when a day old, is a milky white and effervescent beverage that tastes sweet and very flowery. It is locally known kalou dou , meaning sweet toddy, and has a very negligible amount of alcohol. After that, natural fermentation starts, giving us the kalou pike , which is a toddy with some effervescence. Fermentation continues and within within 24 hours you end up with a very intoxicating drink. It will have dark shade of off-white colour and will be slightly viscous and is called ‘kalou for’ meaning strong toddy and can end up with an alcohol content of around 8 %. If further fermentation is permitted the toddy starts to turn into vinegar.
Toddy consumption
Toddy is traditionally consumed at a place called lakanbiz, or at the home of the person who has tapped the toddy. Lakanbiz is derived from the French word ‘la cambuse’ meaning ‘mauvaise cabaret’. It is a place, which could be either an open air location or a shed, whose property owner has a licence to sell the drink. Toddy was in the early days sold in kafoul which is a recipient made out of the coconut husks. Toddy is still currently available from specially licensed premises.
Until recently all coconut trees that were tapped for toddy had to be licensed and a white band painted about two meters from the ground around the tree trunk and the licence number painted on it.
In bez son larak !
In the early colonial days toddy was distilled into high alcoholic beverage called Arak which is now not distilled any more in Seychelles but is very popular in Sri Lanka as well as Asian countries where it is still distilled from palm wine and not necessarily coconut palm. Arak is also an alcoholic beverage found in the Middle East, but it is distilled from grapes and flavoured with anise seeds. Arak gave rise to a saying in Seychelles , in bez son larak, meaning someone is drunk!
Toddy in the outlying islands
Toddy drinking was always a problem in the outlying islands and even in the smaller inner islands. The worst situation for an island administrator is to end up with a bunch of drunken workers on a small island. This could be very dangerous. So the tapping of toddy was highly controlled and no workers were allowed to tap their own toddy. It was only tapped by someone appointed by the administrator and it was issued, as a ration, by the administrator on a controlled basis, after a hard days work.
However, workers did find ways to tap their toddy and in most cases they would tap the roots of the coconut tree so that the process can be hidden underground out of view of the island management and the police, who used to regularly visit the islands to check on illegal toddy tapping and jungle juice or lapire.
Tapping Toddy from the coconut roots
Extracting toddy from the coconut roots was an arduous and complicated process. How is this done? The coconut palm has a fibrous root root system consists of an abundance of thin roots that grow outward from the plant near the surface. It continues to produce roots from the base of the stem throughout its life. The number of roots produced depends on the age of the tree and the environment, with more than 3,600 roots possible on a tree that is 60 to 70 years old.
How was it done?
The process involves digging a small hole next to the tree and cutting away the roots. Manure was the placed in the hole to stimulate new root growth. After a few weeks new roots will appear and when they are long enough, the manure was removed, the roots were bundled together, washed and shaved and the process from here on is similar to tapping from the flower. The toddy that was extracted has a light bluish hew. As one can gather, it is a process that took a long time before one can get any toddy.
Banbou Kalou
Toddy was always traditionally tapped in a bamboo container. This has now changed and we start to see different types of plastic containers in the coconut trees.
The bamboo container is prepared in a very specific way. The procedure is as follows:
Get hold of matured dried bamboo with inside diameter of not less than 10 cm and with a node length of approximately 40 cm. There are different types of bamboo that are grown in Seychelles, including the banbou dsin, banbou nen, banbou ver and banbou zon. The best bamboo for the toddy recipient is banbou ver which is a medium size bamboo and hardier that the rest. Ensure that it does not show sign of splitting. Some bamboo at times has little holes caused by borers. Discard any with holes because the bamboo will leak. Cut the bamboo crosswise to separate each node making the bottom portion as base and the upper portion as its open end. Trim the cut ends to remove all sharp edges. Bore two small holes at around 5 cm below the rim of its open end. Insert two ends of rope to each hole and make knot bigger than the size of holes. This becomes the handle. Your bamboo is now ready for you to use to tap your toddy.
Washing of the Bamboo
Traditionally, the bamboo is washed very regularly. The reason for this is that the residue that remains in the bamboo after the toddy is poured contains yeast and dead yeast cells as well as bacteria. If the bamboo is not washed, the yeast already in the bamboo will tend to accelerate the fermentation process and results in the toddy having a high alcohol content even if it is a day old.
Health benefits of Toddy
Young toddy has a high nutritive value. It contains a considerable amount of antioxidant, sugar, protein, carbohydrate, amino acid, yeast, bacteria, potassium , zinc, magnesium, iron and Vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6 and C. Unfortunately, when the toddy starts to ferment, it starts to loose most of its nutritive value, while the concentration of alcohol and acetic acid increase.
In the next post we will discuss the bi-products of toddy.
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