Published:  11:55 Tuesday - April 17, 2012

Even people who has made the Ap xanh wine for a long time and are quite famous in Phuoc Hoi commune, Long Dat district, also don’t clearly know the root of this hot jade shaking drink.

No one knows when Ap xanh Ba Dap (Áp xanh Bà Đập) wine was named. Some people said that this kind of wine had been made based on the fruit wine of French since years of being dominated. However, some others told that the wine appeared because the forefathers learnt the healthy remedy from Chinese then mixed this with wine for more suitable taste. Even people who has made the Ap xanh wine for a long time and are quite famous in Phuoc Hoi commune, Long Dat district, also don’t clearly know the root of this hot jade shaking drink.  

Mr. Nguyen Van Bong (Hoi My hamlet) states that the small hamlet of Phuoc Hoi commune specifically has up to 90% of families living on wine making career, with about 50 workshops. Similar to many other people of Phuoc Hoi wine making hamlet, Mr. Bong is just a “junior”, inheriting from forefathers. Although has a dozen of years experience in making Ap xanh wine, he only know that there are seven type of herbs are guessed by smell to be dai hau (đại hầu), galangal, licorice but the remaining types can’t be found because they belong to private secret of remedy handler that none of wine makers is able to figure out.    

According to the owners of wine workshops in Phuoc Hoi, there are only two people specializing in loading remedy for Ap xanh wine producing now, one of them is Mr. Duong Tan Phat in Phuoc Loi  hamlet. It’s said that his father previously was an expert in loading remedy for treatment to save people. Mr.Phat owns the specious remedy to make Ap xanh wine thanks to his grandfather who learnt it from a healer from central region and before his death, he passed on it to his family descendants …

Translated by Nhat Minh