Discovering Latin American Beverages

By Christopher Warsow, Contributing Editor

The influence of the Latin American culture is very visible in what Americans are drinking every day. Some of these beverages are quite familiar; others are less common but might still translate into American culture with a bit of a twist to appeal to mainstream consumers.

The beverage format is a great way to introduce exoticsometimes complexflavors to consumers. One of my earliest experiences with beverages from Hispanic cultures was at a taquería in southwest Detroit. As I ordered my tacos, I noticed a rainbow of glass bottles in a cooler behind the counter. They were bottles of Jarritos soda. I learned early on that those vibrant fruit flavors and that real-sugar sweetness provided a perfect counterpoint to a spicy carne asada taco.

Opportunities for Latin American beverages span throughout all levels of foodservice and across various retail beverage sectorsfrom the cooler at the local gas station all the way through fine dining.

Latin bar flair

Even if you are not a Jimmy Buffett fan, you are probably familiar with the margarita. The margarita was probably one of the first alcoholic beverages that made it to the United States from Mexico. The exact origins of this cocktail are cloudy, but the basic components are still the same: tequila, lime juice and orange liquor. It reputedly originated in Mexico, somewhere between the Mexican border and Ensenada. A good margarita is a well-balanced and refreshing symphony of sweet and sour. A bad one is a heartburn-inducing journey to your bottle of antacids.

Another mainstream addition to our culture is the mojito. The mojito is a simple combination of simple syrup, light rum and muddled mint leaves. You can now find a cornucopia of flavored bottled mojitos in your grocerys cooler. So what is the next mojito?

A drink that has been showing up on many drink menus with increasing frequency is the caipirinha, the national cocktail of Brazil. It is a simple combination of sugar, lime and cachaça. Cachaça is fermented, then distilled, sugar-cane juice. It has all the subtlety of jet fuel on the palate when consumed neat, but is sublime in the caipirinha cocktail.

A derivation of this drink that would be well-suited to the American consumer is the caipifruta, where the cachaça is combined with crushed ice and crushed fruits. Popular fruits for this drink include kiwi, pineapple, mango and caja. Caja is a small fruit indigenous to the Brazilian rainforest that resembles a mango in flavor with a bit of a citrus note.

The potential for the caipifruta is just as great as the mojito for both retail and foodservice. The imagination is the only limit on the number of flavored derivations for this drink. Foodservice sales could be further enhanced by offering purées of fruit from the rainforest that are known for their healthy properties.

The pisco sour is another drink that is poised to take over drink menus in the future. The origins of this drink are a point of contention between Chileans and Peruvians. Anthony Bourdain fanned the flames of contention by stating on his No Reservations" program that one countrys version was much better than the others. I will not repeat his comments in print to avoid further escalation of the situation.

The main ingredient in this drink is pisco, a brandy produced in both Chile and Peru, mixed with lemon or lime juice, frothy egg whites, simple syrup and aromatic bitters. The name is derived from the port city of Pisco, Peru, and traces its lineage back to the days of Spanish conquest. Vines were brought over from the Canary Islands by the Spanish for wine production. Many of the grapes did not produce very high-quality wine because of the different soil conditions found in the Americas, so these low-quality juices were often fermented into wine and then distilled to produce pisco. Pisco became popular with the sailors that visited the port.

Healthful options

Coconut water has been popular in Latin Americaas well as Southeast Asia and on islands in the Pacificfor many years. Its isotonic properties make it an ideal drink to overcome and prevent dehydration in hot climates. Coconut water is derived from fresh, young, green coconuts.

Coconut water has been popular with the Hollywood set for a few years now, and its starting to appear in convenience stores. Its growing popularity can be attributed to the fact that it is a natural product that has very good hydrating properties. One slight downfall is that coconut water can be perceived as salty, and perhaps a bit metallic, to the uninitiated. Combining it with sweet and sour fruits can help the flavor profile quite a bit.

This beverage is gaining traction in retail markets for its hydrating properties, but is relatively unseen in foodservice. It might need some marketing help from a company that is willing to invest in promoting it as an alternative beverage to soft drinks in restaurants.

Aguas frescas literally translates as refreshing waters." An intriguing aspect of these beverages is the flavor varieties that are offered. Rick Bayless commonly offers several types at Xoco and his Tortas Frontera at OHare airport, including mango lime and raspberry prickly pear. These are super sweet and super tart, and they cool off the habanero salsa nicely. Aguas frescas can be made from any fruit that is commonly available in the area.

Jamaica (pronounced, HA-mike-ah) is a popular agua fresca that can be found at almost every taqueria and taco stand in Central Mexico. It consists of a tea made from the dried sepals of the hibiscus flower (Hibiscus sabdariffa), sugar or agave syrup, and lime juice. The hibiscus flowers are astringent and earthy, with a similarity in flavor to cranberries. This refreshing brew is often a great counterpoint to richly flavored tacos made from barbacoa or lengua (tongue).

The flavor of hibiscus is catching on in America, and the introduction of the Starbucks Refreshers drinks this past summer in its cafés will help. They are offering an iced Very Berry Hibiscus drink that combines green, unroasted coffee extract with the flavors of blackberries and hibiscus, as well as Cool Lime. This past summer the company also began test-marketing a line of canned, retail, RTD Refreshers in flavors like Strawberry Lemonade, Orange Melon and Raspberry Pomegranate.Tamarind is another ingredient that is used in many beverages, including aguas frescas, throughout Latin America. Its earthy sourness is often tamed with sweeteners and fruit juices. The tamarind pods are usually boiled and puréed, then strained to produce a very tart, concentrated liquid.Aguas frescas work very well in the foodservice arena because of the perceived freshness of the product. They are often marketed in restaurants in beverage bubblers in the front of the house so their vibrant colors are on display to the incoming guests. However, some of the aguas frescas I have experienced in Mexico were toothache-inducingly sweet, so the sugar content might have to be modified to keep a healthy halo surrounding these drinks, if thats a goal.Yerba maté is a traditional beverage brewed from the leaves of the Ilex paraguariensis plant with hot water. The plant contains caffeine and is prized for its energizing effects. Consuming maté is a social event in Argentina and southern Brazil, similar to how Americans often converse and consume coffee.Yerba maté has been showing traction as an ingredient in nutritional and energy drinks for its purported ability to stimulate the metabolism and act as an antioxidant. Its healthy benefits should be marketed in coffee shops and restaurants as an alternative to tea or coffee. Its bitterness and earthy notes could easily be tamed in desserts, similar to how green tea is used as an ingredient.

Grains of life

Grain beverages are popular around the world, Latin America included. Some are fermented, while others are simply a mixture of cooked grains, sweeteners, and fruit or fruit purées. One of the most ubiquitous Latin American beverages is horchata. In Mexico, its made from rice milk and is often flavored with cinnamon and vanilla. It is usually served as an agua fresca over ice. It can be found in just about any Mexican restaurant. Cultural variations on this drink abound, and other Latin American countries add various nuts and seeds to the mix.Some other grain-based beverages that are not that popular in this country, but are in Mexico, include atole drinks. Atole, a masa-based drink, is sweetened with piloncillo (unrefined cane sugar) and is flavored with cinnamon and vanilla. A chocolate version of this drink has its own name, champurrado. It is commonly made in a large bowl, and whipped and aerated using a wooden whisk called a molinillo. Atoles are often served warm or at room temperature for breakfast or after dinner, and are commonly sold by street vendors.One grain beverage commonly served to Ecuadorian children is cuáker. The name is derived from the popular name brand of oats. It is a strained or blended drink made from cooked oatmeal, honey, and fruit juices and purée. It is often spiced with cinnamon and vanilla.American consumers may have issues drinking porridge because of its texture and flavor. Approaches to improve acceptance by U.S. consumers might include cutting down on the amount of masa and/or other grains in the blend. Some of these hot drinks, like atole or champurrado, could be a great hit in chilly regions of the country as an alternative to hot chocolate. Who wouldnt like a toasty, rich chocolate beverage flavored with cinnamon and vanilla? Additionally, in this country, the drink could be marketed as containing whole grains" to give these beverages additional traction.Latin American beverages offer great potential in their ability to cross over to the American mainstream. Marketing and modifying these drinks to American tastes, such as adjustments to sweetness and texture, would be critical to their success. As the population of Latin American people increases in this country, their foods and beverages become further ingrained into our culture, as well. Our country is a melting pot of cultures, and our food and drink is living proof of that fact.Christopher Warsow, corporate executive chef, Bell Flavors & Fragrances, has been working as a chef in the ingredient side of the business for 8 years after spending 14 years in the kitchens of various restaurants. Chris has his AAS in Culinary Arts from Schoolcraft College in Livonia, MI and his BS and MS in Food Science from Michigan State University. He is a member of the Research Chefs Association.

Manipulating Texture in South-of-the-Border Soft Drinks

The appeal of the most-popular tropical fruit drinks in Mexico and other parts of Latin America can be advanced with the use of gums. Gums allow beverage formulators the opportunity to control the way the drink feels" in the mouth and throat when consumed. Different textures can cause refreshments to linger on the tongue, coat the throat or achieve the opposite and clear the palate very quickly. The ultimate textural outcome depends on what the formulator intends as the drinking experience for their customers. Made from different sources, texture modifiers can alter these and other functional characteristics. Changing the texture of a beverage is an excellent way to differentiate it in a crowded marketplace, and avoid expensive reformulation or the addition of sweeteners or other more-costly ingredients.Before selecting any type of gum or texture modifier, the beverage formulator should know the type of consistency desired for the end product. Many issues, including other ingredients that are part of the formula, may not be compatible with the gums chosen.Some of the other aspects that affect the overall performance of the gum in a beverage can include viscosity, pH, processing conditions and how the product with be handled and maintained before it reaches the consumer.Whether the beverage will be frozen, refrigerated and/or defrosted, or carbonated and sold without refrigeration will all be factors in formulating stability and consumer appeal. As with all things, unintended consequences can result from last-minute adjustments for texture. Engineering texture into the formula early in the formulation process will ultimately save time and deliver more-acceptable results.Generally, tropical fruit juices have a high solids content, more than that of other fruit juices. This high concentration of solids can lead to solid separation. Gums and other textural ingredients are ideal for preventing separation and suspending pulp and other solids. Gums can also contribute to a feeling of a richer, denser product.The textural attributes of fruit drinks and/or carbonated soft drinks can be improved using xanthan gum, alginate, pectin, cellulose gum and gum arabic, or a combination of these gums. Xanthan gum has excellent heat and acid stability. This gum is highly viscous, exhibiting properties of suspension at very low concentrations, at a level as low as 0.05%. Xanthan can also tolerate fluctuations in pH, such as the acidg conditions of fruit juices. Gum arabic and pectin can contribute to smoothing the acidic feeling of the drink on the palate while suspending solids. Frequently, due to the synergetic properties of gums, a mix can achieve best results at a more reasonable price.Harold Nicoll, Marketing Manager, TIC Gums, Inc.