Traditional Drinks

🇨🇲Cameroon

Matango

Sap tapped from raffia or oil palms and left to ferment in the bottle, drunk cloudy and sour from a calabash or a reused container.

🇯🇲Jamaica

Mauby

Antiguan Mauby

A Dominican drink of mauby bark, water, sugar, and spices, fermented slightly and served cold. A bitter-sweet, earthy, refreshing Caribbean beverage.

🇨🇿Czech Republic

Medovina

A Czech honey mead, fermented from honey and water, a national and ancient classic.

🇹🇭Thailand

Mekhong

แม่โขง

Mekhong is a Thai brown spirit made from sugarcane and rice, commonly mixed with soda or used in simple cocktails.

🇧🇴Bolivia

Mocochinchi

A Bolivian cold, sweet peach drink made from dehydrated peaches, cinnamon, and sugar

🇨🇱Chile

Mote con Huesillo

Non-alcoholic drink with husked wheat, dried peaches, and cinnamon sugar syrup, Chile's iconic summer beverage.

🇨🇱Araucanía, Chile

Mudai

Traditional Mapuche fermented drink made from wheat or pine nuts, slightly fermented and grain-flavored, a sacred beverage.

🇿🇲Zambia

Munkoyo

Traditional Zambian fermented drink made from maize meal; sweet and slightly tangy; the roots of the munkoyo plant are used to ferment the porridge; a refreshing non-alcoholic beverage; served at gatherings and celebrations; the traditional drink of Zambia; thick and smooth.

🇰🇪Kenya

Muratina

A traditional Kikuyu drink fermented from sausage-tree fruit and sugarcane or honey.

🇳🇺Niue

Niuean Otai

'Otai

A Niuean drink of coconut meat and milk blended with the cooked root of the ti plant (Cordyline fruticosa), unlike the fruit-based Tongan version.

🇲🇿Mozambique

Nkanyu

A fermented or pressed fruit drink made from indigenous Mozambican fruit.

🇺🇬Uganda

Obushera

Sorghum or millet flour cooked and left to sour for a day or two into a thick, tangy drink taken as breakfast or a snack.

🇳🇦Namibia

Oshikundu

Traditional fermented millet drink — a lightly alcoholic, thick, creamy beverage made from mahangu (pearl millet) flour and water, fermented overnight; the everyday drink of northern Namibia.

🇦🇴Angola

Ovingundu

Honey fermented with water into a mead brewed in the central highlands.

🇧🇩Bangladesh

Palm Fruit Juice

তালের রস

Sap of the palmyra palm drunk fresh and sweet in the morning, or left to ferment into a cloudy, sour village drink.

🇲🇺Mauritius

Panacon

A tamarind, lemon, sugar and cardamom drink made in quantity for Hindu religious ceremonies and handed out to everyone present.

🇵🇭Philippines

Pearl Jelly Drink

Sago't Gulaman

A sweet, cold drink with tapioca pearls (sago) and agar jelly (gulaman) in brown sugar syrup, a street drink staple.

🇩🇴Dominican Republic

Pera-Piña

A Dominican drink of pineapple rinds and rice, blended and sweetened, served cold. A creamy, tropical, refreshing beverage, especially during Christmas.

🇨🇷Guanacaste, Costa Rica

Pinol

Finely ground toasted white corn drink from Guanacaste, traditional and ancient, smooth and nutty, a Costa Rican indigenous specialty.

🇬🇹Guatemala

Pinol

A Guatemalan drink of toasted cornmeal and cacao sweetened with sugar and warmed with cinnamon.

🇨🇷Guanacaste, Costa Rica

Pinolillo

Pinol Blanco

Corn and cocoa drink from Guanacaste, traditional and rustic, good balance of corn and cocoa, a Costa Rican beverage.

🇬🇾Guyana

Piwari

Piwari is an Amerindian cassava beer fermented from baked cassava bread and a community culture, shared from calabashes at gatherings.

🇬🇹Guatemala

Ponche de Frutas

A Guatemalan Christmas hot fruit punch with fruits, cinnamon, cloves, and rum, a festive and seasonal classic

🇲🇽Mexico

Ponche Navideño

A Christmas punch of seasonal fruit — tejocotes, guavas, sugarcane — simmered with cinnamon and piloncillo.

🇱🇹Lithuania

Poppy-Seed Milk

Aguonų pienas

Poppy-seed "milk" served with kuciukai at Kūčios.

🇲🇽Chiapas, Mexico

Pozol

An ancient Chiapas and Tabasco drink of fermented corn dough mixed with water, often flavored with cacao or sugar.

🇲🇽Mexico

Pulque

An ancient fermented drink made from the sap of the maguey plant, mildly alcoholic, tart, and slightly viscous.

🇧🇴Pando, Bolivia

Pululo

A Pando plantain flour drink boiled with milk and cinnamon, thick and lightly sweet, a rare northern Amazonian specialty.

🇲🇻Maldives

Raa

Ruku Raa

Fresh coconut-palm sap collected in the Maldives, mildly sweet and cloudy when newly tapped. It is drunk fresh as raa and can develop more alcohol as it ferments into ruku raa.

🇲🇬Madagascar

Ranovola

Water boiled in the pot with the toasted rice crust left at the bottom, drunk hot with the meal in place of anything else.

🇽🇰Kosovo

Rasoj

The sour brine drawn off barrels of whole soured cabbage, drunk cold by the glass through the winter.

🇵🇦Panama

Resbaladera

A Panamanian rice and barley drink with milk, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, a colonial and daily classic

🇮🇳India

Rooh Afza

रूह अफजा

A popular rose-flavored syrup used to make cooling drinks and desserts. It is a staple in Indian households.

🇻🇳Central Highlands, Vietnam

Rượu cần

Ruou can, the communal jar wine drunk through long bamboo straws at highland ceremonies, is a named drink and a distinctive ritual.

🇧🇱Saint Barthélemy

Saint Barts Chaudeau

Chaudeau

Frothy lime-based eggnog made with milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and lime zest; served hot at religious ceremonies such as first communions, baptisms, and weddings; a traditional French Caribbean celebratory drink.

🇸🇭Saint Helena

Saint Helena Ginger Beer

Traditional home-made ginger beer fermented with fresh root ginger, lemons, sugar, cream of tartar, dried yeast, water, and raisins; lightly sparkling and mildly alcoholic, it is a refreshing sweet, smooth ginger drink on Saint Helena.