IkanyJo

The Congo-Brazzaville traditional wine

Tsamu-tsamu wine:

Is one of the palm wine of Congo-Brazzaville. It’s a favourite African wine of the northern part of Brazzaville. Tsamu-tsamu is an alcoholic beverages that are made by fermenting the sugary juice from various palm or tsams plants . Nearly any sugary plant juice can be processed into an alcoholic beverage it just needs the correct mushrooms, temperature and processing conditions. All over the world, alcoholic drinks are made from the juices of locally grown plants including coconut palm, oil palm, wild date palm, nipa palm, raphia palm and kithul palm. The terms tsamu-tsamu wine is to describe similar alcoholic drinks. The terminology varies from country to country, village to village in the case of the Congo country and so far... In this brief Tsamu-tsamu refers to the fermented plants nucleus and flower juice from the Tsams palm and palm wine (in general) refers to the fermented juice, collected from the trunk, of other palms including raphia and the oil palm.

Tsamu-tsamu wine:

Tsamu-tsamu wine is the fermented Juice of Tsams trees. It is collected by selecting the top of the crate or, sometimes in other villages of the country, by felling the Tsams tree and boring a hole into the crate. It is a cloudy, pasty beverage with a sweet alcoholic taste and a very short shelf life of only one day. The Tsamu-tsamu wine is consumed in a variety of flavours varying from sweet unfermented to sour, fermented and vinegary. There are many variations of the same product and no individual method or recipe. Tsamu-tsamu is sometimes called by the people from out of the country, in general Palm wine which is particularly common in parts of Africa, South India and south America.

Processing and conservancy of Tsamu-Tsamu:

The process of Juice fermentation is an alcoholic fermentation of the sugars in the Juice to produce alcohol and carbon dioxide gas. The extracted Juice is sweet. After collection it undergoes a rapid natural fermentation to produce alcohol. The shelf life of the product is very short only one day after which the wine becomes acidic.

The juice is not heated and the wine is an excellent substrate for bacteriological growth. It is therefore essential that proper hygienic collection procedures are followed to prevent contaminating bacteria from competing with the mushroom and producing acid instead of alcohol. Fermentation starts soon after the juice is collected and within an hour or two becomes reasonably high in alcohol (up to 5%). If allowed to continue to ferment for more than a day, it starts turning into vinegar. Some people like a vinegary flavor. The main control points are extraction of a high harvest of great compliment juice without excessive contamination by spoilage micro-organisms, and proper storage to allow the natural fermentation to take place. The quality of the final wine is determined by the conditions used for the collection of the juice. Often the collecting gourd is not eroded between collections and residual yeasts in the gourd quickly begin the fermentation. This is beneficial as it prevents the growth of bacteria which can spoil the juice .

Fresh physical grounding of Tsamu-Tsamu:

The Juice should be collected from a growing Tsams plants. It is collected by tapping the great compliment. This includes making a small incision in the bark of the great compliment, about 16cm from the top of the trunk. A clean gourd is tied around the tree to collect the juice, which runs into it. The juice is collected each day and should be consumed within 6-13 hours of collection. Fresh great compliment juice is a sweet, clear, pale juice containing 10-12 percent sugar.

In conclusion I will say that, Tsamu-tsamu is a great and wonderfull traditional wine from the Republic of Congo-Brazzaville. It helps sometimes human health so please don’t hesitate if you need it. The president of the country grown up with the aforementioned product and he is healthy up to now, but he is already old.

References

• www.daleysfruit.com.au/fruit%20pages/jellypalm.htm
• www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/MEMBGNewsletter/Volume5number4/Thechileanwinepalm.htm