
How a Brewer and the Government Killed Colombia’s Ancestral Drink (2017) - DoreenMichele
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/chicha-colombia-government-conspiracy-spit-drink-beer
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toomanybeersies
On a similar note, there has been a concerted effort over the past few
decadesto stop South Americans from chewing coca leaf and making tea from it,
both of which are orders of magnitude less harmful than refined cocaine, and
traditions that stretch back millennia.

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CaptainZapp
Not really. At least not in Peru.

Especially in more mountaineous regions coca leaves are available for
breakfast instead of coffee. Some hot water over a few leaves makes for a
quite refreshing tea, which I found less aggressive than coffee in its effect.

Leaves can be openly bought at kiosks in bags and contain the calcium stone
required to chew them. Personally I found the taste a bit offputting (the
effect is rather refreshing, though), but figured it needed to be tried once
in Peru (same as guinea pigs, which, alas, I found too much of a bother).

Also, Chicha is still widely available in Peru. My sister in law (who is
Peruvian) adores the stuff.

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pjc50
Reminds me of how for a while Peru was one of two countries where something
owned by Coca-Cola _wan 't_ the most popular soft drink, instead it was Inca
Kola; that ended with partial buyout of the local producer.

(The other was Scotland with Barr's Irn Bru, now a casualty in the War On
Sugar)

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orcs
Iron Bru and Inca Cola whilst being orange and yellow respectively actually
tasted pretty much the same.

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ingenieroariel
I live in northern Colombia and can still buy chicha on my neghborhood store
(on recicled glass soda bottles), always cash, no INVIMA (FDA) label.

However, it is not alcoholic and over sweet. The only way to get the alcoholic
version is to get it from family outside the city.

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gumby
Hell, Nestlé and Coca-Cola are trying to make it hard for some South Americans
to drink tap water!

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gcb0
> taste like the inside of a shoe

I had no idea what the author drank, but it certainly wasn't chicha.

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qubax
And how does the author know what the inside of a shoe tastes like?

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cholantesh
How does anyone know how shit tastes? Obviously they aren't being literal.

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overcast
Why can't they be literal? Shoe leather isn't poison. People involved with
tasting, familiarize themselves with all kinds of flavors that aren't food, so
they can describe what their smelling/tasting. The wine industry is a good
example. How do I know what dirt, grass, dog biscuits taste like? Because I've
tried them. Chewing on a piece of leather isn't exactly some unheard of feat.

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kbutler
Interesting.

I know what dirt, grass, various weeds, and even dog poop taste like because I
did a lot of weed cutting with powerful string trimmers in high school. The
"Weed Eater" brand name is more literal than I like to think about.

Not things I'd choose to taste, or that I'd want to compare with something I
willingly put into my mouth.

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zeveb
I don't think chicha is fermented directly after chewing — saliva contains too
many other microorganisms to do that and have something at all tasty. Give it
a nice boil though, and then ferment it, and I imagine that it'd be just fine.

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ingenieros
You are correct, everything is boiled in a pot prior to fermentation pretty
much the same way that malt is first turned into wort and then fermented in
order to make beer.

