Chicha is a fermented (alcoholic) or non-fermented beverage of Latin America, emerging from the Andes and Amazonia regions.

[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).

One belief is that the word chicha is of Taino origin and became a generic term used by the Spanish to define any and all fermented beverages brewed by indigenous peoples in the Americas.

[7] Chicha de jora is a corn beer prepared by germinating maize, extracting the malt sugars, boiling the wort, and fermenting it in large vessels, traditionally huge earthenware vats, for several days.

The specific type or combination of corn used in the making of chicha de jora shows where it was made.

[10] Naturally occurring ptyalin enzymes in the maker's saliva catalyses the breakdown of starch in the maize into maltose.

This process of chewing grains or other starches was used in the production of alcoholic beverages in pre-modern cultures around the world, including, for example, sake in Japan.

Chicha morada is common in Bolivian and Peruvian cultures and is generally drunk as an accompaniment to food.

[12] For many women in Andean society, making and selling chicha is a key part of their identity because it provides a substantial amount of political power and leverage.

During the Inca Empire women were taught the techniques of brewing chicha in Aqlla Wasi (feminine schools).

Throughout the Amazon Basin (including the interiors of Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, and Brazil), chicha is usually made from cassava, but also cooking plantain is known to be used.

After the juice has fermented in the bowl for a few hours, the result will be mildly sweet and sour chicha, similar in appearance to defatted milk.

[22][page needed] Sites like Máfil in southern Chile were traditional centres of apple chicha produce that was sold in the nearby city of Valdivia.

[23] With the introduction of beer by the German settlers who arrived in the second half of the 19th century the chicha production in Máfil declined and is now done by few and mostly for consumption within the family.

[23] In Bogotá, the capital of present-day Colombia, the recipe is simple; cooked maize is ground with black panela in a large pot.

[24][25] Chicha was outlawed in Colombia in 1949 and remains formally illegal, but brewing continued underground and the drink is openly available in some areas.

It has its roots in the 1970s, when the locals decided to revive an ancient tradition of marking the maize harvest before the September equinox.

[28] It is used as a drink and also as an ingredient on many traditional dishes, such as gallo en chicha, a local version of coq au vin.

In Honduras, the Pech people practiced a ritual called Kesh where a shaman contacted the spiritual world.

Chicha's importance in the social and religious world of Latin America can best be seen by focusing on the drink's central role in ancient Peru.

Chicha was consumed in great quantities during and after the work of harvesting, making for a festive mood of singing, dancing, and joking.

For example, at the Incan capital of Cuzco, the king poured chicha into a gold bowl at the navel of the universe, an ornamental stone dais with throne and pillar, in the central plaza.

At most festivals, ordinary people participated in days of prodigious drinking after the main feast, as the Spanish looked on aghast at the drunkenness.

Special sacred places, scattered throughout the empire, and mummies of previous kings and ancestors were ritually bathed in maize flour and presented with chicha offerings, to the accompaniment of dancing and panpipe music.

[31] In most large cities, chicha is offered by street vendors, commonly referred to as chicheros; these vendors usually use a flour-like mix and just add water, and generally serve them with chopped ice and a straw and may ask to add cinnamon, chocolate chips or sugared condensed milk on top.

The Venezuelan Andean regions (such as Mérida) prepare an alternative version, with added fermented pineapple, which has a more liquory taste.

Chicha use can reveal how people perceive their own cultural identity and express ideas about gender, race, nationality, and community.

[33] After the pilgrimage, the boys chewed maize to make the chicha they would drink at the end of the month-long ceremony.

Rather, the economy depended on trading products, the exchanging of services, and the Inca distributing items out to the people that work for him.

[43] "Agricultural rituals linked the production of maize to the liquid transfer of power in society with chicha.