The Khmer soul at the bottom of the glasses

The Khmer soul at the bottom of the glasses, a chronicle of François Guilbert

After a very successful first study on spirits of Burmese campaigns in 2022, the Australian writer Luke James Corbin installed in Chiang Mai (Thailand) continues his research on traditional alcohols with this time an investigation into brandy Cambodian mountaineers. To carry out his field missions conducted for two years (2022 – 2023), he benefited, once again, from the support of the French company Pernod-Ricard. The firm has indeed seen an opportunity to express its interest in the vast agrifood heritage of a country in which it is established but also ultimately an innovation prospect to develop new products for the local market. Not only was a book born from this collaboration (Sraascape) But also a documentary film (Sra Stories (Rice stories))

Cambodian high-hairy drinks have often very local dissemination

They lack volumes, standardization or even distribution networks. They are popular in the environment of their distillery but not able to follow their followers who live in the distance or live in large urban centers. In other words, ancestral know-how and a range of tastes threatened to disappear in favor of stereotypical but widely disseminated industrial products (eg beer Lagergin, whisky).

To start a safeguard policy, a study like that of Luke J. Corbin is very useful because it allows better understanding of the specificities of the basic ingredients of Aboriginal drinks, their development processes, their reception in consumers and brakes mass distribution bets. There is no doubt about it once gathered, such data can serve the innovation of international spirits of spirits looking for outlets.

This is what already achieved Pernod-Ricard By launching a new rice alcohol: Sensota. Its development was the result of a partnership with an NGO from Libourne (Agrisud) and small distillors from the province of Takeo. An approach that can directly contribute to public policies by helping to define specifications to guide family entrepreneurs in economically more qualitative approaches and ensuring better safety of consumers. The innovation potential for Cambodian alcohols is substantial.

Mastering fermentation processes is very old in Cambodia

Farmers and fishermen have learned over the centuries to master the fermentation of several products (cf. fish (prahok), riz (present), sauce (filled)). Many families themselves produce their jars, palm wine, their banana raw or even their corn from corn. To draw up his inventory of mountain bibones, our lover of fermentation went in contact with villagers Brao, Bunong, Kreung, Kui, Jaraï, Stienug and some other communities still from the Eastern provinces of the Kingdom (Mondolkiri, Ratanakiri). A large -scale work, quite methodical and without real equivalent since the colonial era.

Essentially devoted to the terroirs of the Laotians and Vietnamese borders, the study deserves to be extended even more. It would be, for example, to complement the fragmentary surveys carried out to the west of the country: in the Massifs of Cardamons, Damrei and Phnom Kulen. Again, it is possible to find gnôles to be valued. But recognize that in this stage what was served to us with this book, we swallowed it without moderation.

Sraascape is a very beautiful bilingual work (English – Khmer), illustrated with more than a hundred photos, which allows you to familiarize yourself with the diversity of Cambodia alcohols, their achievements through the ages, their production methods and old conservations and The place of these nectars in spirituality, during community celebrations or protective rites. In the end, we perceive how the (Ré) appropriation of the past gives birth to new vocations of distillors and appear on the tables of new brandies to which the author quickly pays homage at the end of the volume. A taste universe to discover for all those who go or live in Cambodia but to consume, with measure.