Narrator: Juice from cashew fruit is the one ingredient
in feni, a rare liquor made only in this part of the world.
This family is one of the few still using techniques
that date back to the 1500s.
While some brands are pushing to bring feni
to the mainstream, these farmers found a way
to stay in business by hand-making small batches
and selling locally.
We visited Goa, India, to see how the centuries-old tradition
is still standing.
Narrator: The Goankar family searches their land
for fallen fruits every morning.
The fruits fall when they're ripe.
They use a wooden stick with a needle at the end
to pick up each cashew fruit.
Drupathi Goankar is the matriarch of the 100-year-old
family operation.
She's been making feni for 60 years
and took over the business after her husband passed away.
Narrator: During feni season from March to April,
her children and grandchildren help out.
After filling around eight buckets in an hour,
they take out the seeds.
One by one, the family separates the cashew fruit
from the cashew nut.
They sell the raw cashews to factories
that roast and package them.
Then it's time to juice.
Santosh Goankar puts on mining boots.
The hard soles get more juice out of the fruits.
He grew up helping his mother on the farm
and has been doing this full time for 25 years.
Narrator: Little by little, he stomps away.
The family used to use a big wooden stick for this step,
but they eventually found that stomping with their feet
was more effective.
It can get slippery,
so Santosh holds on tight for balance.
Juicing a full vat of cashew apples takes about an hour.
And in the 100-degree heat, it can be exhausting.
Narrator: During breaks, they get fresh cashew-fruit juice
that you can't find in stores.
It has a shelf life of just one day.
Then Santosh piles the last bits of fruit into a mound.
He wraps it with a rope
and drags a few rocks on top
to squeeze out every last drop of juice.
They leave the fruits like this overnight.
Machines would speed up this process,
but it's not an option for this family.
Narrator: Plus, Santosh says handmade feni tastes better.
They throw away the fruit waste or give it to farmers
to use as cattle feed.
Bucket by bucket, they filter out any pulp fibers
through a cloth.
Then the juice sits to ferment for two or three days.
They transfer it into a copper drum.
Meanwhile, Drupathi prepares to seal the drum
by dousing a piece of cloth in mud.
The mud comes from nearby anthills.
The ants and snakes that live in these mounds
refine the soil, which makes it better
for sealing the tanks.
Narrator: Drupathi wraps the clay-covered cloth around the openings
to ensure no air escapes.
She lights a fire to heat the juice
using wood harvested from their land.
It burns for around eight hours.
Steam passes through the pipe
and into a tank filled with water.
It cools down the vapor,
and a slow stream of urak comes out the other end.
Urak is a less alcoholic beverage
that the family sells when there's demand.
Otherwise, they put it back into the copper pot
and distill it for another seven to eight hours.
Once it reaches the right temperature, it's feni,
with 40% to 45% alcohol.
They also test it by looking at the bubbles,
which should be big and spread apart slowly.
The family learned this through decades of experience
and close observation.
Narrator: They make 175 liters of feni every season
and usually sell all of it to local buyers.
But business today looks a little different than it used to.
People in nearby villages have moved
to bigger cities for work,
so fewer people come by to drink feni.
Narrator: The family brings in around 50,000 Indian rupees,
or nearly $700, in a season.
And their operation probably won't be getting any bigger,
since buying more land can be expensive.
The government auctions off trees to the highest bidder.
Narrator: Meanwhile, other feni makers in Goa
are looking to expand the market
and popularize the drink.
A brand called Cazulo draws in locals and tourists
with a tasting room and distillery tours.
Narrator: One of the tour's big attractions
is the underwater aging technique.
Workers have to dive in the water
to pull out aged bottles of feni.
Narrator: Cazulo gets its feni from local farmers
who hand-make it in the traditional way,
just like the Goankar family.
Some of these methods date back to at least the 1500s,
when farmers in this region used to make liquor
from coconut palm sap called toddy.
Narrator: After the Portuguese brought cashew trees
from Brazil to Goa at some point during the 16th century,
distilling cashew feni became more common
since it was easier to produce.
It's been popular throughout Goa ever since,
but it hasn't been able to break out beyond state lines.
Narrator: For the Goankar family,
they're not sure how much longer their business
will sustain them.