Chicha

Chicha
A jug of chicha morada served with pipeño, Olmué, Chile
TypeBeverage
Chicha served at the yearly Fiesta del Huán, to celebrate the December solstice at the Sun Temple in Sogamoso, Boyacá, Colombia

Chicha is a fermented (alcoholic) or non-fermented beverage of Latin America, emerging from the Andes and Amazonia regions.[1] In both the pre- and post-Spanish conquest periods, corn beer (chicha de jora) made from a variety of maize landraces has been the most common form of chicha.[1] However, chicha is also made from a variety of other cultigens and wild plants, including, among others, quinoa (Chenopodium quinia), kañiwa (Chenopodium pallidicaule), peanut, manioc (also called yuca or cassava), palm fruit, rice, potato, oca (Oxalis tuberosa), and chañar (Geoffroea decorticans).[1] There are many regional variations of chicha.[2] In the Inca Empire, chicha had ceremonial and ritual uses.[3]

  1. ^ a b c Frances M. Hayashida (2015). "Chicha". In Karen Bescherer Metheny; Mary C. Beaudry (eds.). Archaeology of Food: An Encyclopedia. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 97–98. ISBN 9780759123663.
  2. ^ "Chicha - An Andean Identity". Ohio State University. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  3. ^ Malpass, Michael Andrew (1996). Daily Life in the Inca Empire. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 77, 107–11, 131. ISBN 9780313293900.