Beverages of Latin America

ANT4930: Food and Gastronomy in Latin America Beverages of Latin America [00:00:05.53] Beverages of Latin America for the court's food and gastronomy in Latin America. There have been many major contributions to beverages worldwide that have come from Latin America. Including one of the world's most widely consumed beverages Coca-Cola, the story is quite interesting. [00:00:23.86] There was a pharmacist in Atlanta by the name of John Pemberton who heard about Coca wine being made in France. Of course, in France, they were getting the Coca leaves from the hyaline Andes where the plant is native. So he got some Coca wine and instead took the alcohol out of it but left the cocaine in and began marketing the syrup. The syrup was Coca-Cola syrup and with the addition of carbonated water people could make the beverage Coca-Cola. [00:00:51.16] In 1983 the cocaine was removed from the beverage but the leaves were left in it as a flavoring agent, and to this day lives are still imported and make up part of the secret formula or so- called secret formula for Coca-Cola as a flavoring agent. Meanwhile tea from coca leaves has a really long history of consumption in its native habitat in the Andes. Long before European arrival, indigenous peoples there were drinking Coca tea. [00:01:17.38] It's very beneficial for adjusting to the high elevations and it's quite common to find it in markets in the Andes today. The impact of Coca-Cola on Latin America has been pretty widespread. It's available everywhere, even in the most remote corners and it's been in many areas detrimental to local health and its impact on nutrition and diet. There's a term called coca colonization, this is a term coined to signify the imposition of American culture on other nations around the world. [00:01:45.26] It ends up that the per capita consumption of Coca-Cola in Mexico, for example, is the highest in the world and it's increased consistently over the last 20 years throughout Latin America. In Guatemala consumption rates are around 268 ounce servings per capita a year, it's also 20% increase since 2003. There's an interesting study done in Chiapas, Mexico, found that Mayan households that had more income were more likely to have malnourished children. And end up the reason for this was due to the ready availability of junk food and Coca-Cola. While the poorer families that couldn't afford Coca- Cola were still relying on the traditional diet and up being healthier. [00:02:24.99] Many of the beverages consumed in Latin America today have ancient roots in the numerous pre-Colombian civilizations. And the drinks are based on a number of native plants. And this illustration, these are some plants that are added to chocolate today called cacao. And notice one of these actually isn't from Latin America, it's been introduced there cinnamon, introduced by Europeans. But some of these other plants like vanilla, achiote, sopot, and chili peppers are from Latin America, and long flavored drinks there especially cacao. [00:03:00.76] Fermented beverages show up everywhere in the world pretty much, in Latin America is no exception. In fact, fermentation, appears to be quite common in Latin America pre-conquest. And there was a number of different fruits and plant products that served as the base material to provide sugars that were then convert it ethanol usually with wild yeasts that are found on the fruit or plants themselves. [00:03:24.54] It's generally understood that Europeans introduced distillation. Or at least after European arrival distillation of fermented beverages became widespread throughout the region. However, some archeologists suggested maybe distillation occurred prior to conquest of Europeans. There's been some experiments done using different types of vessels that have been found in archeological sites. And so it's possible that there was some form of distillation of fermented spirits. [00:03:52.73] However, if it did occur, they were generally used likely to produce a prestige product for ceremonial purposes with high social and cultural relevance. Of all the beverages that originate in Latin America, it's chocolate or cacao it's arguably the most significant. In precolonial times cacao is primarily used by the elite, and prepared as a beverage and was served as the last course of a meal. The beans were prepared by letting them ferment for a period of time and then cured, roasted, and ground on a powder and then added to hot water and froth. And the froth, that was a really important part of it. [00:04:27.40] We know that the Aztecs, for example, would create a foamy head by using a spoon or special utensil. And in the Mayan iconography we see that they would pour from one vessel to another in order to create this foam. Once the cacao was prepared that way, it was common that additional flavors were added. Syrup from honey or maguey was added, mezda might have been added to thicken the drink, and different herbs and spices as well. [00:04:54.98] Vanilla as I mentioned, was quite common as well as achiote. Although achiote was really there to provide the color, this deep red color rather than the flavor. [00:05:06.30] Certain flowers were used as well, and each flower provided a very different taste. Generally the only people they can drink alcohol these times were the elite, and even then, only the males. After European arrival and chocolate was then brought back to the old world, the beverage changed, milk and sugar arrived and it became transformed more and more. The sugar making it less bitter, and now it's being served hot as well. That's really what we know is what we call hot chocolate today. They became very important in Europe and ultimately the rest of the world. [00:05:44.67] Balche is a really interesting drink that comes from the Mayans, and still drink today in the Maya region. Comes from a plant known as Lonchocarpus violaceus the tree in the legume family. And the name of course is mine, but in Spanish it's known as pitaría. It's fermented and used in a lot of different ritual context. Sometimes honey's added to it to sweeten it, then it's covered with palm leaves and left to ferment and generally takes about a day or so. [00:06:18.78] It was a ceremonial drink that was considered a food of the gods, and it showed up at a lot of different festivities. Depending on the type of plant other plants that were added it would change the effect of it, and it's still drunk today as I mentioned. And it may be that some of the additions to Balche made it psychoactive. [00:06:40.24] Research by Jonathan Ott suggested that pre-Colombian Yucatec Maya were intentionally producing a psychoactive honey from a plant known as Turbin a corymbosa into the Balche. He also suggested that the Mayans would follow the bees around and when they found plants that were psychoactive from the honey they would then know where they existed. [00:07:03.38] Atole from Mexico, is a hearty beverage that can almost be considered a meal. It's based on maize or corn. It's prepared by taking cooked corn grounded it up and then diluting it in water. It's then heated usually over fire and stirred continuously until the mixture becomes cooked and thickens up. At that point it's called white atole, And it may be served just in that form, but it's oftentimes uses the base to make other atoles by adding additional ingredient, fruits for example, such as pineapple or guava or different spices. And it's very popular throughout Mexico, and each region of Mexico might have its own particular style of atole. [00:07:45.96] Sometimes it served sweetened with different sugars or honey perhaps, but then they're also sour atoles, salty atoles, and even spicy atoles. It really does serve as a meal for some people, especially during the day. In addition to being an important food, it's also sometimes considered to be medicinal or used for ceremonial ritual purposes as well. [00:08:09.06] Pozol is another corn based beverage from the Nahuatl Pozolii word. It's usually found in southern Mexico in the states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Veracruz, Oaxaca and Yucatan. In this case though it's made with corn that's gone through the nixtamalization process then recooked and ground up. And other ingredients are sometimes added as well. At that point if you have a paste, and these balls are formed that are then put into water. [00:08:38.88] Traditionally wasn't sweetened, but today sometimes sugar or even salt is added to it. There's also a pozol con cacao where chocolate's added to it. Sometimes ground beans are put into it. There's also sour pozol fermented in Leaves of a banana like a plant called guan which only shows up in that area. [00:09:02.55] Chicha is a broad category of fermented beverages that show up throughout Latin America. And it's a little unclear where the term first developed. There's some evidence that it comes from Mexico, the name at least.

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