Viche: The Colombian “Moonshine” that is becoming popular around the world

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Mexico Has Tequila. Peru, Pisco. In Colombia, a Push for Viche, Now Legal.

Invented by formerly enslaved people, Viche, a cane sugar liquor, was long banned, a sort of Colombian moonshine. Now, it’s a symbol of the country’s often ignored Afro-Colombian culture.

Lucía Solís, a sixth generation producer of viche, selling the liquor at the Petronio Alvarez festival in Cali, Colombia, last month.
Lucía Solís, a sixth-generation producer of viche, selling the liquor at the Petronio Alvarez festival in Cali, Colombia, last month. Credit…Federico Rios for The New York Times.

CALI, Colombia — As a child, Lucía Solís watched her family bury a stash of cherished but prohibited cane sugar liquor, called Viche, in the woods, fearful of police seizures and even arrest.

Yet here she was this August surrounded by bottles of various types of Viche, its liquid the color of amber or cream or crystal, and she was swamped by customers eager for a now legal taste.

Click here to read the complete original article by Genevieve Glatsky and Julie Turkewitz in The New York Times

Source: The New York Times

Mexico Daily Post