With a standard tropical maritime climate complete with high humidity, high temperatures and a lot of rain, the Philippines is a biodiversity hotspot. There are thousands of plant species in this nation that one would be in awe in learning about them and seeing them.

Unfortunately, grapes are not grown here. Some do survive but often need a lot of care. But even if this is so, the country is a wine-producing nation making wines from plums, mangoes, rice, sugarcane and other produce that grow in this kind of climate.

The indigenous people living in the Cordilleras make rice wine similar to Japan’s sake while the southern Taglogs make a vodka-like concoction from coconut called “lambanog”. In other parts of the region, tuba is made. Tuba is a nice wine from fermented coconut bud sap and often drank in the countryside.

In the northern part of the Philippines, the Ilocanos produce sugarcane wine referred to in the vernacular as “basi”. In other parts of the Philippines, wines made from strawberries, pineapples, and other tropical fruits are also made.

The Philippines produces a number of alcoholic beverages that are just waiting to be discovered both by the curious and the connoisseur.

Basi del Diablo Wines makes sugarcane-based wines blended with a number of tropical and non-tropical fruits. If you are looking for pure sugarcane wine however, your best bet is Basi Puro. Basi Puro uses a 108-year-old recipe using only the freshest of ingredients grown in a farm in the northern region.