What Is Tuak? A Beginner's Guide to Sarawak's Heritage Rice Wine

Tuak is Sarawak's traditional rice wine — a fermented drink brewed by the Iban, Bidayuh, and other Dayak communities of Borneo. If you've been to a longhouse during Gawai, you've almost certainly been handed a cup of it. Here's what it actually is.

What is tuak made of?

At its heart, tuak is glutinous rice, water, and ragi — a traditional yeast culture. The rice is cooked, cooled, and combined with the ragi, then left to ferment. The yeast turns the rice's sugars into alcohol over days and weeks, producing a wine that's clean, lightly sweet, and unmistakably rice-forward.

The yeast is the soul of it. At Tuak Madis we don't buy ours in — we inherit and grow our own ragi at our yeast house in Kampung Beratok, from a secret recipe passed down across generations.

What does tuak taste like?

The Original is the reference: clean, gently sweet, with the slow fermented note that tells you it wasn't rushed. From there it ranges widely — fruit and root co-ferments like Roselle, Ginger, Apple, and Dragon Fruit; the cane-sweet Tebu; the bold, smoked-barley Stout; and Langkau, the twice-distilled spirit for toasts and cold nights. See the full range.

Tuak and Gawai

Tuak is inseparable from Gawai Dayak, the harvest festival celebrated on 1 June. Brewing began weeks before, so the wine was ready when the rice came in — tuak marks the moment the harvest is safe. It's shared, never drunk alone: the host pours into small cups that pass hand to hand around the longhouse gallery.

How to drink it

Serve it lightly chilled, in small cups, with food and company — it pairs beautifully with Sarawak laksa, grilled river fish, and the spread of a celebration. Want the deeper story behind the bottle? Read our story, or start with the Original.