In India every kind of spirituous liquor is known under the general appellation of arrack; and hence the various accounts given of the mode of making it, and the materials used. The manufacture of arrack was formerly carried on by the Portuguese at Goa, but has been transferred for the most part from that place to Batavia. At Goa there are different kinds; single, double, and treble distilled. The double distilled, which is that commonly sent abroad, is weak compared with Batavia arrack; yet, on account of its peculiar and agreeable flavour, is preferred to all the other arracks of India. This flavour is attributed to the earthen vessels used to draw the spirit; whereas at Batavia they use copper stills.

The Pariah arrack made at Madras, and the Columbo and Quilon arrack at other places, being fiery, hot spirits, are little valued by the Europeans, though highly prized among the natives.

The Goa arrack is obtained by a double process of distillation from a vegetable juice called toddy, which flows by incision from the cocoa-nut tree. The liquor thus obtained holds but a sixth, and sometimes an eighth part of alcohol, or pure spirit.

Batavia arrack is obtained by distillation from rice and sugar. A fiery spirit called samshew, which is mixed with arrack, is imported into Batavia from China, chiefly for the use of the Chinese settlers.