What does chicha mean?
Chicha is the name given to a family of traditional beverages brewed across South and Central America since pre-Columbian times. Most classically, it refers to a mildly alcoholic, beer-like drink fermented from maize, though versions made from cassava, fruits, and other grains exist throughout the region. In parts of the Andes, chicha has long held ceremonial importance: it was offered to gods and ancestors by the Inca and remains central to community festivals today. A famous traditional technique involves chewing maize so that salivary enzymes convert its starches into fermentable sugars before brewing. The word also denotes non-alcoholic refreshers such as Peru's beloved chicha morada, a sweet purple-corn drink spiced with cinnamon and lime. Borrowed into English via Spanish from an Indigenous Caribbean language, chicha appears mainly in writing about anthropology, history, and Latin American food culture.
nounA traditional fermented beverage of South and Central America, most often made from maize but also from other grains, fruits, or cassava; the term also covers a non-alcoholic sweet maize drink (chicha morada) popular in Peru.
- A fermented, typically maize-based alcoholic drink of Andean and Central American origin, traditionally prepared by chewing the grain so saliva enzymes convert its starches to sugar.
- A non-alcoholic sweetened drink made from maize or fruit, such as Peruvian chicha morada, made from purple corn.
"At the festival in Cusco, villagers offered cups of homemade chicha to every guest."
"The farmers brewed a batch of chicha for the harvest celebration."
"On a hot afternoon, nothing refreshed us like an icy glass of chicha morada."
Usually treated as an uncountable mass noun referring to the drink itself; the plural chichas appears mainly when distinguishing different regional varieties.
"Andean markets sell many different chichas, from maize to peanut varieties."
Before the Incas toasted their gods, they spat into the brew: some traditional chicha is made by chewing maize and fermenting it with saliva enzymes.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of chicha
English borrowed chicha from Spanish, which took the word from a Caribbean Indigenous language — generally identified as Taíno — during the early colonial period, first recorded in European sources in the sixteenth century. It belongs to the same remarkable wave of Taíno borrowings that gave English words such as hurricane, canoe, barbecue, and hammock. Spanish colonists applied the term broadly to Indigenous fermented drinks across the Americas, which is why Andean maize beers came to bear this originally Caribbean name.
How chicha is actually used
Chicha is a loanword used almost exclusively in discussions of Latin American culture and cuisine; it carries neutral-to-positive connotations of tradition and hospitality. In Peru it may refer either to the mildly alcoholic chicha de jora or to the non-alcoholic chicha morada, so context matters.
Easily confused with chicha
Chi-chi means showy, pretentious, or stylishly fashionable (or slang for breasts), while chicha is a fermented South American drink; they are unrelated despite similar spelling.