Alcoholic beverage of Tesgüino beer

Tesgüino is an alcoholic beverage (beer-like) based on germinated maize. The astringent maize based beer, homemade beer is an importance social beverage and drink during Easter week for Tarahumaras.

The Tarahumara, or self-called Rarámuri, are one of the largest indigenous tribes in North America with nearly 100,000 people. The majority are concentrated in the highlands of the Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico. The alcohol used by the Tarahumara is almost entirely in the form of Tesgüino.

To prepared the maize are soaked, ground up, boiled and spiked with a local grass to help the mixture ferment.

It is said that tesguino was given to the Indians by onoruame or Lata diosi (god) so that they could get their work done and that they might enjoy themselves. Whenever a jar of the beer is drunk, it must first be dedicated to Lata diosi by symbolically tossing three small gourdfuls dipped from a larger gourd towards each of the four directions.
Alcoholic beverage of Tesgüino beer

Traditional beverage: Brazilian Indian Kaschiri

This Brazilian kaschiri is brewed from masticated cassava. The alcoholic cassava products are beverages similar to beer or solid foods. To obtain cassava beers it is necessary to hydrolyze the starch before starting fermentation by yeast. Cassava is a shrubby tree with large tuberous roots that are rather immune to insect attack because of the high levels of cyanide in the tuber skin.

The poison is removed by squeezing the grated and ground tubers on water and then heating or evaporating the products. The starchy juice pressed out of ground cassava is fermented or it is chewed in the starchy form, which aids the change into sugar. Nowadays, malting enzymes usually replace saliva.

For Brazilian Indians, this beverage plays a main part in religious feasts and especially in the death-feasts. In this occasion the beverage give the drinkers the power of resistance against evil spirits.
Traditional beverage: Brazilian Indian Kaschiri

Production of masato: beverage based yuka

Masato is a fermented drink based on yuka, which is a big tuber with lots of starch and very little sugar. It is equivalent of homemade beer.

So native Peruvians boil, peel and chew the yuka and let it sit for a few days. First they grate the roots and wash water through the coarse mixture, sieving it thoroughly. This removes a poison, a form of hydrocyanic acid, which occurs naturally in the tuber.

After grating, it is cooked and crushed with a wooden spoon. Normally, the women will around the pot, mashing the cooked tuber. The cooked yuka is then chewed into a paste by women and spit out into a large bowl or kettle. This operation is repeated as many times as is necessary to turn the yuka into masato.

The whole is now mixed with the hands. The enzymes in their saliva break down the starch and turn it into sugar—perfect for hungry yeast. After four days, the paste has fermented. It’s mixed with water, and then served. The drink, a weak alcohol, is traditional consumed in enormous quantities.

Production of masato: beverage based yuka

Yuka tuber