ARRACK, ARRACK, or RACK, a spirituous liquor imported from the East Indies, used by way of dram and in punch.

The word arrack, according to Mr. Lockyer, is an Indian name for strong waters of all kinds; for they call our spirits and brandy English arrack. But what we understand by the name arrack, he affirms is really no other than a spirit procured by distillation from a vegetable juice called toddy, which flows by incision out of the cocoa-nut tree, like the birch-juice procured among us. The toddy is a pleasant drink by itself, when new, and purges those who are not used to it; and, when stale, it is heady, and makes good vinegar. The English at Madras use it as leaven to raise their bread with.

Others are of opinion, that the arack or arrack, is a vinous spirit obtained by distillation, in the East Indies, from rice or sugar, fermented with the juice of coconuts.

The Goa arack is said to be made from the toddy, the Batavia arack from rice and sugar; and there is likewise a kind of shrub from which arack is made.

Goa and Batavia are the chief places for arack.—At Goa there are divers kinds; single, double, and treble distilled. The double distilled, which is that commonly sent abroad, is but a weak spirit in comparison with Batavia arack; yet, on account of its peculiar and agreeable flavour, is preferred to all the other aracks of India. This flavour is attributed to the earthen vessels which they use at Goa to draw the spirit; whereas at Batavia they use copper stills.

The Parier arack made at Madras, and the Columbo and Quilon arack at other places, being fiery hot spirits, are little valued by the Europeans, and therefore rarely imported; though highly prized among the natives. In the best Goa arack, the spirits of the cocoa juice do not make above a fifth or eighth part.

The manner of making the Goa arack is this: The juice of the trees is not procured in the way of tapping, as we do; but the operator provides himself with a parcel of earthen pots, with bellies and necks like our ordinary bird-bottles: he makes fast a number of these to his girdle, and any way else that he commodiously can about him. Thus equipped, he climbs up the trunk of a cocoa tree; and when he comes to the boughs, he takes out his knife, and cutting off one of the small knots or buttons, he applies the mouth of the bottle to the wound, fastening it to the bough with a bandage; in the same manner he cuts off other buttons, and fastens on his pots, till the whole number is used: this is done in the evening, and defending from the tree, he leaves them till the next morning; when he takes off the bottles, which are mostly filled, and empties the juice into the proper receptacle. This is repeated every night, till a sufficient quantity is produced; and the whole being then put together, is left to ferment, which it soon does. When the fermentation is over, and the liquor or wash is become a little tart, it is put into the still, and a fire being made, the still is suffered to work as long as that which comes over has any considerable taste of spirit.

The liquor thus procured is the low wine of arack; and this is so poor a liquor, that it will soon corrupt and spoil, if not distilled again, to separate some of its phlegm; they therefore immediately after pour back this low wine into the still, and rectify it to that very weak kind of proof-spirit, in which state we find it. The arack we meet with, notwithstanding its being of a proof-teeth, according to the way of judging by the crown of bubbles, holds but a fifth, and sometimes but an eighth part of alcohol, or pure spirit; whereas our other spirits, when they show that proof, are generally esteemed to hold one half pure spirit. Shaw's Effay on Distilling.

There is a paper of observations on arack, in the Mélanges d'Histoire Natur., tome v. p. 302. By fermenting, distilling, and rectifying the juice of the American maple, which has much the same taste as that of the cocoa, the author says, he made arack not in the least inferior to any that comes from the East Indies; and he thinks the juice of the sycamore and of the birch trees would equally answer the end.

Besides the common sorts of Goa and Batavia arack, there are two others less generally known; these are the bitter arack and the black arack.

By stat. 11th Geo. I. c. 30. arack on board a ship within the limits of any port of Great Britain, may be searched for and seized, together with the package; or if found unshipping or unhipped, before entry, may be seized by the officers of excise, in like manner as by the officers of the customs.—Upon an excise officer's suspicion of the concealment of arack, and oath made of the grounds of such suspicion before the commissioners or a justice of peace, they may empower him to enter such suspected places, and seize the liquors, with the casks, &c. If the officers are obstructed, the penalty is 100l.

Arack is not to be sold but in warehouses, entered as directed in the 6th of Geo. I. c. 21. upon forfeiture, and the casks, &c. If permits are not returned which are granted for the removal of arack, or if the goods are not sent away within the time limited, the penalty is treble the value. If the permits are not returned, and the decrease is not found to be sufficient, the like quantity is forfeited. Permits are not to be taken out but by direction in writing of the proprietor of the stock, or his known servant, upon forfeiture of 50l. or three months imprisonment.

By stat. 9th Geo. II. c. 35; if arack is offered to sale without a permit, or by any hawker, pedlar, &c. with a permit, the person to whom it is offered may seize and carry it to the next warehouse belonging to the customs or excise, and bring the person offering the same before any justice of the peace, to be committed to prison, and prosecuted for the penalties incurred by such offence. The person seizing such goods may prosecute in his own name; and on recovery is intitled to one-third part of the gross produce of the sale: and the commissioners are, if desired, upon a certificate from the justice of the offender's being committed to prison, to advance to the seizer 15s. per gallon for the arack so seized.

Arack (except for the use of seamen, two gallons each) found in any ship or vessel arrived from foreign parts, at anchor, or hovering within the limits of any port, or within two leagues of the shore; and not proceeding on her voyage (unless in case of unavoidable necessity and distress of weather, notice whereof must be given to the collector or chief officer of the port upon the ship's arrival), is forfeited, with the boxes, casks, or other package, or the value thereof.

Arack is also the name of a spirituous liquor made by the Tartars of Tungulia, of mare's milk, left to four, and afterwards distilled twice or thrice between two earthen pots closely stopped, whence the liquor runs through a small wooden pipe. It is more intoxicating than brandy.