Xingu (beer)

Xingu is a Brazilian beer brand. It was created by Amazon, Inc., a Brattleboro, Vermont based beer import company, founded by Anne Latchis and four women friends in June 1986.  Anne's husband, beer historian Alan D. Eames was the guiding consultant on the project and artist Eric Green was contracted with to design the original diamond-shaped map label. The concept of the brand was inspired by the history of women brewing a "beer-like" fermented beverage from manioc root in the Amazon region of Brazil. The black lager style, or schwarzbier, was chosen to resurrect a nearly extinct style of beer in the US market. The brand was named for the Xingu River, a tributary of the Amazon River, to raise awareness of the need for conservation to protect the rainforest environment and home to the surviving members of the Kayapo native tribes. The original Xingu Black Beer label, created as a painting by Eric Green, depicts a map of the Xingu River region, anaconda snakes, a caiman, and a Kayapo native with lip disc.