There is both a lot of fame and infamy that comes from Papua New Guinea, some good, but sadly some bad. One thing that fits into the good camp is firewater in Papua New Guinea, the local hooch, or moonshine that keeps the locals sourced.
How though does one go about drinking firewater in Papua New Guinea? No worries The Street Food Guy got you covered.
WTF is Firewater in Papua New Guinea?
Most countries that brew hooch tend to be Islamic ones, or ones where it is banned. A second strata though is countries that have poverty combined with expensive booze. Examples of this include Cambodia where I live and where people go blind , or die each year drinking the stuff.
You can read about deadly Khmer hooch here.
In PNG booze like everything else is expensive, so they make their own, mostly out of the abundant bananas, but also any old rotting fruit. But this drink is no outlier at all, with it not only being seemingly drank by everyone, but also being such a cultural phenomenon that there is even a song about it.
How do you get Firewater in Papua New Guinea
Despite the shit literally being illegal you can get the stuff literally everywhere and I have personally had it everywhere from Port Moresby to Bougainville. Sometimes getting it is hard, but for the most part you simply need to find the “dealer”, something I think we can all relate to.
Quality varies greatly of course, but I shall cover the best vintages later in the article…
Firewater in Papua New Guinea – Cost
How much does firewater in Papua New Guinea cost? The cost of firewater in PNG is just 10 Kina, or $3 dollars for a 250 ml bottle. Said bottles are usually put into an old coke bottle, quite often a squared and rather disgusting looking.
They can also bee served in other bottles, which really should mean not drinking from the bottle……
How string is PNG Firewater?
It is quite literally different each time and depends on the maker, I have had firewater in Mount Hagen that tasted more like soju, as well as stuff in Arawa in Bougainville that took me quite literally three shots to be drunk.
I would surmise that ir anger from about 20 to 70/80 percent proof, with a taster sip being the order of the day before you start necking it.
How do you drink firewater in Papua New Guinea?
Well, it turns out that I was very much drinking it wrongly, as in straight, which led me getting the nickname paiawara man, the local name for the stuff.
Generally you should as the locals say mis it with a local pop- such as Gold Spot (the national soda brand), or any other soft, or energy drink For me personally I prefer to neck it neat and chase with either a Gold Spot Creaming Soda, or better still GoGo Cola, the national #ColaQuest of the country.
Or of course you could just drink SP Beer…..
And do we drink it on our tours of Papua New Guinea? We certainly provide the option if that is your thing, but we also go to nice bars that offer SP beer, or can provide water and soft-drinks for those inclined.
Should you though wish to try firewater in Papua New Guinea than you certainly cannot going wrong with booking one of our tours, which tend to be led by The Street Food Guy!