Palek, also known as paleg or mineovaheng, is a traditional Filipino alcoholic drink from the Batanes Islands made from fermented sugarcane juice. It is flavored with ebony bark (Diospyros ferrea), which turns the drink black. It is traditionally served in a halved coconut shell and passed from one person to the next.
The Batanes Islands were also named "Bashi" in old European records after palek. It was named by the English explorer William Dampier in 1687 due to the drink being plentiful in the islands, which they called basi, after the name of a similar drink in Northern Luzon.
See also Basi Intus
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