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Fermentation Atlas

Alcoholic drinks from Dima Hasao

Judima (Dimasa rice wine)judima

Judima is the rice wine of the Dimasa people of Assam and the first drink of Northeast India to receive a Geographical Indication. Women make a starter cake (humao) from pounded rice and the bark of thembra (Acacia pennata), crumble it into boiled rice and leave the mix in a covered earthen or bamboo vessel. After about a week a pale yellow liquid collects, which is strained and diluted; aged judima is preferred. Made in 9 steps over 7 days – 12 days. The longest step, ferment, takes 3–7 days (Sarmah P 2022). Lactic acid bacteria does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3–7 daysReported[sarmah2022][yumnam2024]Ferment
AciditypH 4.9Measured[sarmah2022]Keep and age
Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks7 days – 12 daysGeographical Indication, India (certified 14 September 2021)More alcoholic drinksMore from India

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceHousehold recipe from a Dhansiri village family recorded by Sarmah et al. 2022; one large humao cake for about 5 kg of rice.
80–100 g per cake, 5–7 cm in radiusHumao starter cake of soaked, pounded rice and powdered thembra bark · 15–20 g of "old rice" is sprinkled over each new cake; one large cake serves about 5 kg of rice[sarmah2022]
About 5 kgRice, boiled and cooled · Bairing rice, grown for judima, or bora (glutinous) rice is preferred[sarmah2022]
Water · To dilute the liquid before drinking[sarmah2022]
Starterkoji/qu/mold-starter: humao, a sun-dried cake of rice and thembra bark

Total time across the recorded steps: 7 days – 12 days

Start
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What changes: Thembra bark is sun-dried, cut and crushed to powder

Step 1 of 9
Dry and powder the thembra bark
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactobacillus
Pediococcus lead

Output: bark powder.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

What makes this one different

Judima's starter cake is made with thembra bark (Acacia pennata), which the Dimasa credit with turning rice sweet. It is the first traditional drink of Northeast India with a Geographical Indication.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Starter plantsBesides thembra, makers add Piper betle, Buddleja asiatica leaves and Hedyotis scandens leaves and twigs to the starter.
  • Rice typeWhite bora (glutinous), non-bora (non-sticky) and bairing rice are used; colour runs from pale yellow to reddish with the rice.

Safety

No safety limits specific to judima were found. Rice beers from southern Assam, judima among them, carried genera such as Staphylococcus and Klebsiella as well as lactic acid bacteria.

Hazards the sources name: Staphylococcus and Klebsiella (genera detected across the same rice beers).

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

A Dimasa folk tale says an ancestor hung his rice lunch, wrapped in banana leaves, in a tree; when he came back a sweet liquid was dripping from it, which the Dimasa put down to thembra bark. Judima is served to guests at marriages, births and mourning. The GI application was filed on 16 January 2019 and the product was certified on 14 September 2021.

  1. [sarmah2022] Sarmah P., Pegu B.K., Sanong J. 2022, Documentation of traditional method of preparation and characterization of judima, a traditional rice beer of Dimasa tribe of Assam, Biosciences Biotechnology Research Asia 19(4):1133–1138paper
  2. [yumnam2024] Yumnam H., Hazarika P., Sharma I. 2024, Metagenomic insights into traditional fermentation of rice-based beverages among ethnic tribes in southern Assam, Northeast India, Frontiers in Microbiology 15:1410098paper