PALM WINE

                                                                    PALM WINE

Palm wine is an alcoholic drink gotten from the sap of a palm tree Arecacaceae palmae. It is found in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Caribbean. Palm wine is a sweet drink that starts fermenting immediately after it has been tapped from a palm tree. Once this fermentation starts, the alcoholic content increases that within two hours after tapping, it produces 4% alcohol and if not consumed within 24 hours becomes sour. 

                                                          AFRICAN PALM WINE ( Nigerian palm wine)

 Palm wine is produced and consumed greatly in West Africa, Nigeria to be precise. The Igbo people of Nigeria  are the largest producers of palm wine in Nigeria. There are no festivals or ceremonies held in Igbo land without palm wine. In Igbo land, palm wine tapping is an occupation for mostly elderly men and it is an abomination for women to climb a palm tree not to talk of tapping from it.'Agbu' or 'ete' is an instrument for climbing a palm tree in Igbo land , some of them are gotten from a plant called 'akiri' or palm fronds it is then twisted tightly. There are some occasions where people fall from the palm tree  due to weak 'agbu' or 'ete' or even due to missing of step.
During the ancient time in Igbo land, once it is tapped in the morning, it is either sold immediately or consumed by  the owner because there was no able means to prevent it from spoiling except they are parboiled so as to kill some micro-bacteria that must have entered as it was exposed to the atmosphere.