Feni For Your Thoughts

The Land Of Susegad Is Noted For Its Gi-tagged Alcoholic Beverage. Vikram Achanta Goes On A Taverna Trail To Taste The Different Kinds.

- Vikram Achanta

Caution—the following sentence may be injurious to your health. The test of a good cashew feni is to dip your finger in it and light it. If you succeed, it’s all good. If I’d followed this to the letter over the course of the evening and night, I’d have been pretty singed, ’cause the feni we drank was uniformly good, and I think also a far cry from most commercial brands.

We were in Goa, the land of susegad, where Hansel Vaz of Cazulo Feni knows nothing can be taken for granted. So, before organising the first ‘Cazulo taverna crawl’, he and the team from The Local Beat (a tour operator focused on providing uniquely Goan experiences for tourists) did a recce. They quickly realised that due to the oppressive heat, tavernas were closed during the afternoons. And that, in between the planning and execution, some tavernas had already closed, with one morphing into a cake shop.

For those nostalgic for the old ways, and a dose of local traditions, add Goa’s tavernas on your next trip along with your usual shacks. The taverna is an institution which owes its creation to Portuguese rule, as a place where the working class met. As Hansel explained in a preamble to the tour, there was never a tradition of binge drinking at one sitting in Portuguese culture, but one of consuming small amounts throughout the day.