Loving "Bahalina", pride of the Visayans

sample label of Coconut wine in Cabucgayan

Coconut wine had been the traditional pride of the "Waray" speaking people of Eastern Visayas. Immigrants to these islands in central Philippines, and even the entire archipelago joined the Leyte-Samar natives in loving these fermented wine from coconut toddy, which has about 10% alcohol. And this "Tuba," as they locally call it, was the best the Samareneos could offer to Ferdinand Magellan's army during the country's early history.

I am a light drinker and I appreciate the taste of good coconut wines. But my obsessions in having to see "bahalina" as valuable as grape wines started when I realized many in the rural coconut planted areas depend on the industry, which was not even given emphasis on improving. Well, drinking may not be acceptable to many, but "grape wines" from the west is well accepted. So why not improve the coconut wine and package it to be known if not like the popular grape and other fruit wines, the rice wine of Japan, and others but at least establish its own name not to remain as a lowly local drink even considered as a "poor man's wine".

The coconut wine industry needed much more attention from researchers and government support agencies. There are several researchable areas I discuss below, these include: process standardizaton, identification and use of appropriate yeast strains, formulation studies, equipment design, and process improvement.


Tuba process standardization. My study have initially identified optimum levels of bark and day of bark introduction, but there are still a lot of works to be done as far as establishing the optimum initial sugar level of the sap, the maximum alcohol levels and acidity. Standards and grading must also be established for tuba so that we can classify Tuba which would come out from different areas of Leyte and Samar. If gasoline has regular, premium, and unleaded, we should also have a definite standard as when do we consider Tuba as, “bag-o”, “bahal”, “bahalina”, or whatever other term we apply.

Identification of yeast species. Crucial to the fermentation processes are the yeast strains. In my study, I have isolated a different kind of yeast of the genus Schizosaccharomyces, which is dominant in bahalina. If we can identify, isolate and culture these yeast and compare the performance of yeast in existing grape wineries it could be good. The yeast could be a unique factor that would identify bahalina against grape wines.

Formulation Studies. A study on possible mixing of tuba with other herbs, juices, and other materials as well as use of other sources of tannins (barok). I have tried mixing Tuba with grape juice (1 Liter of bahalina with 1 Litro pack of grape juice powder) and it taste like commercial grape wine. Rural people in Leyte have practiced it nowadays.

Design and development of equipment. Although reverse engineering is the most economical way of technology development. Our local engineers can develop fermenters and other equipment for tuba processing.