Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Soft drinks from Panama

Chichemechicheme

Chicheme is a sweet, spiced drink of hulled maize cooked for hours in water, then finished with sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg and milk. Panama's culture ministry describes the La Chorrera version as cooked, with no fermentation step; some regional versions are described as soaked and left to ferment, but no study of that fermentation was found.

A short entry: the sources we found record only what is said here about Chicheme itself.

DocumentedSoft drinks9 h – 10 h

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sources give no fixed amounts.
Hulled maize (maíz pilado), whole or lightly ground[sicultura]
Water for cookingThe cooking liquid is kept; it is part of the drink[sicultura]
SugarAdded after about 4 hours of cooking[sicultura]
Cinnamon, vanilla and nutmegCloves are also named for the La Chorrera version[sicultura][telemetro2023]
MilkEvaporated milk and coconut in the Colón version[sicultura][telemetro2023]

Total time across the recorded steps: 9 h – 10 h

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Starting material: maize pounded to remove the hulls

Step 1 of 4
Hull the maize
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Output: hulled maize (maíz pilado), whole or lightly ground.

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

Chicheme is a sweet, spiced drink of hulled maize cooked for hours in water, then finished with sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg and milk. Panama's culture ministry describes the La Chorrera version as cooked, with no fermentation step; some regional versions are described as soaked and left to ferment, but no study of that fermentation was found. Made in 4 steps over 9 h – 10 h. The longest step, cook the maize for hours, takes 8–9 h (Ministerio de Cultura de Panamá 2025).

Key numbers
Main step8–9 hReported[sicultura]Cook the maize for hours

What makes this one different

Unlike chicha de jora, chicheme is not brewed into a beer. The Panamanian ministry's record of the La Chorrera version describes cooking only, with no fermentation step; Wikipedia says some versions ferment.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Chicheme chorrerano (La Chorrera)Hulled maize with milk, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and vanilla; served cold.
  • Chicheme colonense (Colón)Whole maize with flour for thickness, coconut and evaporated milk; served hot.
  • Purple-maize chicheme (Guanacaste, Costa Rica)Made with purple maize; named in Wikipedia only.

History and sources

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

Panama's Ministry of Culture records chicheme chorrerano as part of the traditional food of La Chorrera, a seal of its cuisine that locals and visitors ask for. Wikipedia says the name seems to come from Nahuatl, from chicha, and may instead come from a Guna or Mozarabic word.

  1. [sicultura] Ministerio de Cultura de Panamá, Dirección Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural 2025, Gastronomía de La Chorrera, chicheme chorrerano (Sicultura cultural heritage record)gov
  2. [telemetro2023] Ruíz N. 2023, Etnia negra, chicheme colonense vs chorrerano, ¿son iguales?, Telemetroweb
  3. [wp-chicheme] Wikipedia, Chicheme (outline and name origins only)wiki