The Last Cashew Season: A Journey into Goa's Forgotten Feni Culture

The smell hits you before anything else. A sharp, raw sweetness rolling off sun-scorched hillsides — the scent of cashew apples fermenting in stone pots as old as the men who tend them. This is Canacona in late March, and the feni season is at its fragile peak.

Feni — Goa's fiercely protected geographical indication spirit — is not just a drink. It is a calendar, a ritual, a reason to wake before the sun. I arrived at Narayan Dessai's farm at 5am, in time to watch the first press of the day.

My father made feni. His father made feni. Now my son wants to work in IT in Pune. Who will do this work in twenty years? Nobody wants to know.

The bhatti — the traditional still — crouches low in a stone room, its copper coils dripping the first distillate into a clay pot. The second distillation, called cazulo, is what most consider true feni.

Getting There from Your Hotel

Canacona is roughly 65km south of Margao. GoaTaxis runs direct cabs from any South Goa hotel or from Dabolim airport. Ask your driver to stop at the Chaudi market on the way back.