Cholai

For the 2016 film, see Cholai (film).

Cholai is an illegal alcoholic beverage made in India, equivalent to "hooch" or "bootleg" alcohol. Usually made from rice and distilled, it is sometimes mixed with industrial alcohol or methanol, which has resulted in several hundred deaths.

Preparation

As the product is unlicensed and neither well-controlled nor documented, information on the ingredients and production methods are vague, though it is felt that cholai may generally be made by "fermentation of boiled rice, sugar-cane, juice of date tree, molasses, and fruit juice (pineapple and jackfruits) etc."

The Indian encyclopedia, Bharater Adibasi, has a description of cholai as being a distilled alcohol made with two earthen pots joined together; the lower pot filled with yeast and mixed rice/jaggery; the upper pot left empty with an output tube. When the lower pot is heated, the vapour of 80% alcohol goes to the upper pot and comes into contact with cold air, which distils the vapour to become "cholai".

It is locally made, and sold cheaply and illegally. In 2011, consumption of cholai adulterated with industrial alcohol resulted in the death of over 140 people.

Cholai is also considered a local name, or a variant, of "desi dāru" (Hindi for "country alcohol"), i.e., cheap distilled liquor.