Mabi and unfermented sweet potato beveragesArticle 4 of 16 Mabi and usages in Native American cultures

The mabi-beer and its variants in the Caribbean.

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The sweet potato beers vary according to the variety of potatoes: white, red, violet, more or less sweet, more or less bitter. Like the cachiris from cassava, they are flavoured with some seasonal fruits, or mixed with bananas.

In 1652, Antoine Biet observed in French Guyana that it was possible to sweeten the Maby with cane sugar, a custom adopted by the English in Barbados:

"The Maby is another kind of beverage that is very easy to make, it is only pure potato, which is cooked in a boiler; you peel it [mash it], & put a lot of water on it and then you mix it together, it boils like new wine [fermentation]. It has a rather pleasantly sour taste. It must be drunk quickly, because it is becoming sour. If you mix in a raw sugar syrup when you make it, it's a very delicious beverage; the English use it a lot in Barbuda [Barbados Island]."[1].

Antoine Biet also mentions the Palinot, a beer made of sweet potato and manioc mixed together:

"The Palinot is another kind of beverage, made of potato and burnt cassava; they put it in a Canary, which is a pot of earth, they break it in pieces when it is hot, then they fill this vessel full of water, adding raw potato which they cut in pieces; they cover this vessel, it boils like the maby. It must be drunk twenty-four hours after it is made, this beverage has the taste & colour of beer & is intoxicating." (ibidem, pp. 356-357).

Burnt cassava refers to fire-cooked cassava pancakes that Amerindians use as food when they travel because it keeps as well as rusks. It is also an ideal ingredient for brewing cachiri.

 


[1] Biet Antoine 1664. Voyage de la France équinoxiale en l'isle de Cayenne, entrepris par les François en l'année MDCLII : divisé en trois livres .... p. 356. gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k102668p.image
Mabi and unfermented sweet potato beveragesArticle 4 of 16 Mabi and usages in Native American cultures