🇧🇯 Beninese Cuisine

Sodabi

Palm Wine Spirit

Prep Time Fermentation period
Servings 12
Difficulty Hard

A potent distilled spirit made from fermented palm wine, clear in appearance with a strong, slightly sweet aroma. Sodabi is Benin's traditional hard liquor.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. 1 Collect fresh palm wine from tapped palm trees.
  2. 2 Allow the palm wine to ferment naturally for 2-3 days until strongly alcoholic.
  3. 3 Set up traditional clay pot still with bamboo condensing tube.
  4. 4 Heat fermented wine slowly, collecting the distilled spirit drop by drop.
  5. 5 Filter through cotton cloth and store in bottles.

Did You Know?

Sodabi is poured on the ground as a libation to ancestors before any ceremonial gathering in Benin, honoring the Vodun spiritual tradition.