Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Soft drinks from Colombia

Champúschampús

Champús is a sweet-sour drink or dessert from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru made from maize, wheat or both, sometimes with fruit and spices. Lactic bacteria and yeasts ferment it lightly, so it carries some lactic and acetic acid and a little alcohol.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Champús itself. Its own sources do not record how it is made, so the steps and scenes below are those of Chicha de jora (malted-maize chicha), the closest documented alcoholic drinks ferment, shown as a guide to the method, not as a record of Champús.

Short entrySoft drinks

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo tested recipe with amounts was found; producers' recipes vary.
Maize, wheat or a mix of both[lopez2023]
Fruits and spices (optional)Studies name the option but no fixed fruits or spices[lopez2023]

Total time across the steps of Chicha de jora (malted-maize chicha): 13 days – 52 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
Close-up: water moving into a grain

What changes: Water soaks into the maize kernels to start them sprouting

Step 1 of 6 · steps of Chicha de jora (malted-maize chicha)
Soak the maize
Time
12 h – 8 days
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Weissella
Leuconostoc
Lactobacillus
Yeasts
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: soaked maize.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Champús is a sweet-sour drink or dessert from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru made from maize, wheat or both, sometimes with fruit and spices. Lactic bacteria and yeasts ferment it lightly, so it carries some lactic and acetic acid and a little alcohol. Lactic acid bacteria (Weissella, Leuconostoc, Lactobacillus) and yeasts, abundant through the process and Yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Issatchenkia orientalis, Pichia fermentans, Pichia kluyveri, Zygosaccharomyces fermentati, Torulaspora delbrueckii, Hanseniaspora do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Temperature16.5 °CMeasured[lopez2023]Ferment the maize (or wheat) base

What makes this one different

Champús is low in alcohol and is served as a drink or a dessert, with a taste between sweet and sour. Its core microbes overlap with those of chicha, forcha and masato, the other Andean maize ferments.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Rice champúsFAO lists champuz as a fermented drink of maize or rice.

Safety

A study of five producers found total coliforms, and in some samples E. coli and S. aureus, above Colombian microbiological criteria, and proposes improvement plans for small producers.

Hazards the sources name: Total coliforms, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus above Colombian criteria in some samples.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

  1. [lopez2023] López-Cadena Y.S., Valencia-García F.E., Restrepo-Escobar N. 2023, Microbiological and physicochemical characterization of a traditionally fermented corn product, "Champús", Vitae 30(3) (abstract)paper
  2. [osorio2008] Osorio-Cadavid E., Chaves-López C., Tofalo R., Paparella A., Suzzi G. 2008, Detection and identification of wild yeasts in Champús, a fermented Colombian maize beverage, Food Microbiology 25(6):771–777 (abstract)paper
  3. [delgado2022] Delgado-Ospina J. et al. 2022, Exploring the core microbiota of four different traditional fermented beverages from the Colombian Andes, Fermentation 8(12):733 (abstract)paper
  4. [fao138-ch4] Haard N.F. et al. 1999, Fermented cereals, a global perspective, FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin 138, ch. 4 Table 1 (champuz row: "fermented beverage based on maize or rice")gov