Although the Gia Rai ethnic minority in the Central Highlands have lost many of their customs during the process of modernisation, there are still few men brave enough to challenge women’s place at the head of the drinking table.

To find out if the legends about the hard-drinking women of this female-dominated society are true, one has to venture into small hamlets deep in the darkest Central Highlands jungles on one of the many special occasions of the year.

There, you’ll surely be a special guest of the Gia Rai, and be amicably entertained until you can no longer stand up.

But beware of your greed – this ethnic group’s ruou can or jar wine can deliver a killer hangover.

Every Gia Rai person knows the ronia extract taken from a local grass is a "nerve poison," but that’s not enough to discourage them from using it as one of the many herbal ingredients they add to their famous ruou can.

The Gia Rai ruou can brewers believe the ronia extract is one of the many secrets that makes their brew more highly prized and sacred than the wine made by their ethnic neighbours.

For this reason, the use of ronia in ruou can is a closely guarded secret among the Gia Rai people that has survived the test of time and rapid social change in A Yun Pa, an area that is now emerging as the rice bowl of Central Highlands.

Shoot that poison arrow

The people say they have used ronia since ancient time for their poison-tipped arrows. The hunters would take their time extracting the ronia, and were careful to make sure the arrowheads were dry before they headed out into the jungle for their week-long hunts.

Today, local brewers strictly observe the time-honoured method of mixing the poison into their rice wine.

At certain times of the month, women are forbidden from going anywhere near the ruou fermentation area.

The secret ingredients can only be prepared in good weather, because the fermenting cakes need to be dried thoroughly over a number of sunny days.

The amount of ferment prepared also depends on the occasion at which the ruou can will be drunk.

The best brewers always say they keep their fermenting cakes for a long time before they are used.

Most prized of all are the old cakes that have been attacked by termites, whereas new cakes are no good at all because the wine would end up sour instead of bittersweet.

Although the ruou can can be drunk after just two weeks of fermentation, the brewers advise you to bury the jars deep in the earth for as long as possible until the rice wine turns dense and yellow like honey.

The only exception is wine made from cassava, which turns sour if it is kept too long.

Hard-drinking women

The Gia Rai people are famed for their respect for women and hospitality, and nowhere is this more true than when they host a ruou can party during a ritual or festival.

Under their matriarchal custom, the female head of the house reigns supreme once a jar of rice wine is cracked open.

Whether they’re celebrating a new harvest, house-warming, buffalo sacrifice, an honoured guest or a new-born’s first month of life, the matriarch is always the first to get into the spirit of things by drinking the first glass of wine.

To make sure every guest has their fair share of ruou can, the hosts of the party will recruit a bartender who watches over the drinking games that can last from ten in the morning until long into the night.

For abstaining from the excesses of the evening, the bartender is rewarded with a small, live pig by the owner of the house.

Unlike the ruou can customs of the Tay Bac (northwest mountainous) region’s Muong and Thai people, in which a group of people simultaneously sip the wine through small bamboo pipes, the Gia Rai share their joy by decanting the wine into a big bowl before pouring it into smaller bowls.

This way, the ingredients of the wine can be perfectly blended before every drinker has a taste.

However, before the collective drinking gets underway, the guests must once again pay their respects to the matriarch.

The woman hosting the party is the only person who can drink the very first drops of wine taken from the jar.

After the first few rounds of strong wine are drunk, the jar is filled with fresh water until it is much weaker. By then, drinkers move on to sharing the wine by taking it in turns to enjoy it through the one bamboo pipe.