Palm Juice (Emu)

The first item that caught our eye to try in the local 'Costco' supermarket was the somewhat unfortunately named 'Palm Juice'. This was in amongst the beer and wine section and appears to be a preserved version of 'Toddy'. This is a drink made by collecting sap from palm trees and allowing it to ferment into a drink that is around the same strength as beer. I was fortunate enough to try this last year in Kerela. It had a slightly unusual fermented taste to it, but was also reasonably sweet and definitely drinkable. I was told that the best time to drink it was in the morning as it goes off very quickly - the drink we just bought has a sell by date of 2011 on it so clearly they have found a way to make it last longer.



The Palm Juice we bought comes from Nigeria and is subtitled Emu. It is made by Adun Foods and mentions the Kegite klub on the label. The bottle we buy is a little worryingly covered in dust.


We opened the bottle...and Oh my god it smells bad. Like rotten blue cheese mixed with sewer water. We apprehensivly poured it into a glass and it does look really similar to the Toddy I had in India.


Against everyone's better judgement me and Doug both decide we have to try it. Holding our breath and ignoring the tremendous stench we both tried a very small sip.




Verdict: Absolutely foul. The acrid taste would not leave our mouths and required a number of rinses and eating other food to try and get rid of it. I really cannot believe anyone drinks this and am actually hoping that the bottle we had was off as it would scare me if people really liked this. This has to be the worst drink ever - even worse than the legendary Jeera Sip...never again...