It has a sweet or sour taste[1] and can be eaten as is, as ingredients for traditional recipes, or fermented further to make rice wine (which in some cultures is also called tapai).

Derived cognates has come to refer to a wide variety of fermented food throughout Austronesia, including yeasted bread and rice wine.

The culture can be naturally captured from the wild, by mixing rice flour with ground spices (include garlic, pepper, chili, cinnamon), cane sugar or coconut water, slices of ginger or ginger extract, and water to make a dough.

Depending on the length of time and various processes, tapai will result in a large number of end products.

The general process is to wash and cook the target food, cool to about 30 °C, mix in some powdered starter culture, and rest in covered jars for one to two days.

The finished gruel will taste sweet with a hint of alcohol, and can be consumed as is, or left for several days more to become more sour.

These are usually traditionally fermented with or paired with fish or shrimp (similar to Japanese narezushi), as in burong isda, balao-balao, or tinapayan.

Rice wines derived from tapay include the basi of Ilocos and the tapuy of Banaue and Mountain Province.