Food & drink in Colombia

Chicha tastings

Chicha is a fermented alcoholic drink often made with corn, with deep roots in Indigenous culture. Chosen women, often community elders, would chew the corn for hours (and sometimes for days) before important traditional ceremonies and rituals, as it was thought their wisdom then passed into the drink. Later, that process was mechanised, but the drink’s importance to Colombia’s Indigenous peoples was undiminished.

Thick and frothy, packed with carbohydrates and sugar, chicha was originally an energy drink for manual workers in rural areas, to the point that many would wear gourds made from calabash shells around their necks, into which their chicha could be poured.

Then, from the late 19th century, chicha began to be stigmatised as unhealthy, and a pathway to violence and crime. Some suspected the accusations were part of a plan to boost beer consumption instead. Eventually chicha was banned altogether. Those who made, sold or even drank it faced imprisonment. But prohibition didn’t work. Bootlegging became common – everyone knew who in their neighbourhood could supply it. “Women would make it in their homes. How could the government stop it after all, because we need corn for arepas, too, so who is to say where it is being used,” says Natalia.

Eventually chicha made something of a comeback. Though it remains illegal, consumption has been legitimised in some areas, and you may see street sellers with their colourful bottles denoting different flavours. On our Colombia slow travel holidays you might take part in a chicha tasting experience – “but it’s more than just a tasting,” says Sam Gough, founder of our partner Travel Differently. “Chicha has been around for hundreds of years – thousands of years, probably. What’s amazing about our tasting experience is hearing how the drink relates to Colombian culture. You get a whole history of the last 500 years through the story of a drink.”