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Fermentation Atlas

Starters and koji from Sikkim and Darjeeling

Marcha (murcha)मर्चा

Marcha is a dry, flat starter cake of soaked, pounded rice mixed with wild herbs, ginger and chilli, seeded with a little powdered old marcha. The cakes rest under fern fronds while moulds, yeasts and bacteria grow, then dry in the sun. Brewers crumble marcha into cooked millet, rice or barley to make jaanr, chhaang and the spirit raksi. Made in 5 steps over 3 days – 8 days. The longest step, sun-dry, takes 2–5 days (Sha S.P 2017). Mucor circinelloides and Rhizopus microsporus and Mucor hiemalis and Rhizopus chinensis do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step2–5 daysReported[sha2017][anupma2020]Sun-dry
AciditypH 4.9–5.7Measured[anupma2020]Sun-dry
Fully documentedStarters and koji3 days – 8 daysMore starters and kojiMore from IndiaMore from NepalMore from Bhutan

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceTraditional household craft with no fixed batch size; the only amount the sources give is the 1–2 % of old marcha.
Soaked rice[sha2017]
Wild herbs (Plumbago zeylanica, Buddleja asiatica, Vernonia cinerea) · Nepali makers use over 42 different plants in all[sha2017][karmacharya2024]
Ginger and dried red chilli[sha2017]
1–2 %Powdered old marcha · The back-slop that seeds the new batch[sha2017][anupma2020]
Starterback-slop: 1–2 % powdered old marcha

Total time across the recorded steps: 3 days – 8 days

Start
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Close-up: water moving into a grain

What changes: Water soaks into the rice grains

Step 1 of 5
Soak the rice
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Moulds
Yeasts

Output: soaked rice.

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

Marcha is a dry cake starter like Chinese xiaoqu or Indonesian ragi, not a grain koji. Its moulds turn starch into sugar and its yeasts make alcohol, so it does both jobs in one cake. Wild herbs, ginger and chilli go into the dough.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Nepal marchaMade with over 42 different plants; yeasts isolated from 27 samples were placed by morphology in Saccharomyces, Endomycopsis and Zygosaccharomyces.
  • Sikkim marcha (amplicon data)Bacteria dominated by Acetobacter, Fructobacillus and Lactococcus; only yeasts found among the fungi, which conflicts with culture studies that isolate Mucor and Rhizopus.

Safety

One study found two strains of the aflatoxin-forming mould Aspergillus flavus in a Sikkim marcha sample and called its presence alarming. The authors suggest it may come from the low-grade or old rice starter-makers often use, so clean, fresh rice lowers the risk.

Hazards the sources name: Aspergillus flavus, an aflatoxin-forming mould (two strains from one Sikkim marcha sample).

History and sources

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

  1. [sha2017] Sha S.P., Jani K., Sharma A., Anupma A., Pradhan P., Shouche Y., Tamang J.P. 2017, Analysis of bacterial and fungal communities in marcha and thiat, traditionally prepared amylolytic starters of India, Sci. Rep. 7:10967paper
  2. [anupma2020] Anupma A., Tamang J.P. 2020, Diversity of filamentous fungi isolated from some amylase and alcohol-producing starters of India, Front. Microbiol. 11:905, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2020.00905paper
  3. [tamang2016] Tamang J.P., Watanabe K., Holzapfel W.H. 2016, Review, Diversity of microorganisms in global fermented foods and beverages, Front. Microbiol. 7:377paper
  4. [karmacharya2024] Karmacharya J., Shrestha P., Karki T.B., Pant O.P. 2024, Isolation and identification of yeasts in marcha, a rice wine starter culture from Nepal, Int. J. Food Sci. 2024:4188578paper