Hawaiian ‘sacred’ food leads to ‘gabi’ wine

By Madelaine de Venecia Cabrera

Poi, a paste made from mashed "gabi" (taro), is considered a ritual food by Hawaiians. It represents the spirit of Haloa, their ancestor, and is a nutritious food besides.

Poi, when fermented, also happens to be mildly alcoholic.

This cultural artifact led Dr. Julie D. Tan, food technologist at the Philippine Root Crop Research Center (PhilRootCrops), to produce Tarroz, a dessert wine rich in the natural anti-oxidant anthonyanin.

She and her husband Dr. Daniel S. Tan, a professor specializing in crop processing at the PhilRootCrops Research and Training Center, launched Tarroz in 2008.

The wine is made from a newly developed variety of purplish-white taro, NSIC G9, and a black glutinous rice called Arabon.

"I named the product Tarroz because the Spanish for rice is arroz," Mrs. Tan said,

"Now that taro is being recognized all over, I believe it to be a very promising root crop. Another interesting point is that the taro we use in the wine was developed at PhilRootCrop," she added.

The black rice was developed at the Visayas State University, making the ingredients for Tarroz all local and all-natural.

Even the addition of food coloring was never an option for the couple.

"The sugar is the natural sweetness derived from the starch of the taro and black rice. And this sugar is actually believed to be good sugar," she said.

Tarroz also has a low glycemic index, meaning that while it is sweet it does not raise blood sugar. Low-glycemic foods are considered good for diabetics.

(PhilRootCrops has also developed coco sugar, which is derived from "tuba", the sap of the coconut bud. "It’s P300 per kilo and is available at Philippine Coconut Authority. They developed the technology. Coco sugar is also low in glycemic index," Mrs. Tan said.)

The original Tarroz formulation was found to be too sweet. Hence, two types were later developed – one high and the other low in sweetness.

Like most makers of food and beverage, Mrs. Tan found packaging a problem.

"The problem is we don’t have enough bottles in the Philippines. I found a bottle manufacturer all the way from China by internet. But the most difficult part is shipping the bottles here. It ends up very expensive," she said.

A 330-milliliter bottle of Tarroz costs P280. To add a decorative touch, an attractive strip of abaca is attached to the top of the bottle. The decorated product costs slightly higher at P300.

The project has already attracted cooperators who adopted the technology. Five hectares of land has been planted to taro.

"They (cooperators) would also be the one to market the wine. A socio-economist is working on testing. We plan to have a market survey and consumer tasting," Mrs. Tan said.

Even without market testing, the Tans are confident there is a market in the A and B segments.

"Those who frequently drink red wine would appreciate the Tarroz," Mrs. Tan said.

There is no competition at the moment. "We are the first and only producer of taro wine," Mrs. Tan said.

Established in March 1977, PhilRootCrops is based in the Visayas State University in Baybay, Leyte.

Its mandate is to plan, coordinate and implement development and extension of root crops such as sweet potato, cassava, yam bean, taro, arrowroot.

PhilRootCrops maintains a germplasm collection of more than 2,000 varieties – 900 of sweet potato, 300 of cassava and 300 of taro. The rest are of yam and less-known root crops.