Soft drinks

Also called afurá.

refreshing sweet-sour rice drink

1. Grind rice on a stone; form a cake and let it ferment
2. Dissolve the cake in sugared water

• Wikipedia (pt), 'Afurá' (fetched 2026-10-16)

Also called agua agria.

Non-alcoholic sour maize drink.

1. Ferment ground maize in waternot given

• FAO 1999 ch.4 Table 1, https://www.fao.org/4/x2184E/x2184e10.htm

Also called ಅಂಬಲಿ, అంబలి, ragi ambali, ragi java.

sour ragi drink/gruel

1. Mix ragi flour into water, ferment14–16 h
2. Cook with rice; cool; dilute with buttermilk

• Tamang et al. 2016 (rabadi row), https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2016.00377/full

Also called atol shuco, shuco, atol agrio (El Salvador), shuco (Chiapas, Guatemala).

Dark, sour, salty hot maize drink-meal.

1. Soak and grind dark maize; let the dough or slurry fermenthours to overnight (several hours of natural fermentation in press accounts)
2. Strain and cook to a thin atole
3. Serve in a gourd (huacal) with beans, alguashte and chilli

• El Diario de Hoy, atol shuco features, https://www.eldiariodehoy.com/?p=64816
• UNICACH repository, Documentación de la bebida shuco atol agrio, https://repositorio.unicach.mx/handle/20.500.12753/6194 (certificate error; not read)

Also called atole agrio, atol agrio, xocoatolli (Nahuatl, reported), sour atole.

sour, non-alcoholic maize gruel

1. Steep grain in water4 days
2. Mill; let dough stand24 h – 5 days
3. Dilute, strain and boil to a thin gruel

• Haard N.F. et al. 1999, Fermented cereals: a global perspective, FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin 138, ch. 4

Also called Brottrunk, Brotgetränk, bread drink, Kanne Brottrunk (brand).

very sour, cloudy bread drink, drunk mixed with apple juice and water as the maker recommends

1. Lactic-ferment wholegrain bread in water

• German Wikipedia, Brottrunk, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brottrunk (fetched 2026-10-16)

Also called carato de acupe, acupe, carato fermentado.

Lightly fermented, sweet-sour maize drink (acupe); unfermented carato also exists as a boundary twin.

1. Cook maize, grind, dilute and leave in a clay tinajashort (lightly fermented; exact days not found)

• Real Academia Española, Diccionario histórico, acupe, https://www.rae.es/tdhle/acupe
• FAO 1999, Fermented cereals: a global perspective, ch.4 Table 1: acupe (Venezuela) = beverage based on germinated maize, fermented and sweetened, https://www.fao.org/4/x2184E/x2184e10.htm

Also called champús, champuz.

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.

1. Ferment the maize (or wheat) base16.5 °C
2. Finish with fruit and spices and serve

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.

• 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)
• 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)
• 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)
• 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")

Also called chicheme, chicheme chorrerano, chicheme colonense.

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 records the La Chorrera version as cooked, not fermented; some regional versions are described as soaked and left to ferment, but no study of that fermentation was found.

1. Hull the maize
2. Cook the maize for hours8–9 h
3. Add spices and milk
4. Cool and chill (La Chorrera) or serve hot (Colón)1 h

• Ministerio de Cultura de Panamá, Dirección Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural 2025, Gastronomía de La Chorrera, chicheme chorrerano (Sicultura cultural heritage record)
• Ruíz N. 2023, Etnia negra, chicheme colonense vs chorrerano, ¿son iguales?, Telemetro
• Wikipedia, Chicheme (outline and name origins only)

1. Ferment maize-cacao dough and dilute

• Ojeda-Linares C. et al., "Traditional Fermented Beverages of Mexico: A Biocultural Unseen Foodscape", Foods 10(10):2390, 2021

Also called 寒食漿, 漿, perpetual sour rice water.

sour, clear, cold drink; also the base for 飧 (rice soaked in sour water) and leaven

1. Fill a jar with hot rice at cockcrownight before the Qingming festival (3rd month)
2. Soura few days, then drinkable
3. Feed and top up3–4 days

• Jia Sixie, Qimin Yaoshu (6th century), ch. 86 飧飯

Also called obushera, munkoyo, chibwantu, oshikundu.

low or non-alcoholic sour cereal drinks

1. Cook porridge; cool
2. Add amylase source (malt, or munkoyo roots) to thin and sweeten
3. Fermenthours (oshikundu, same day) to 1-6 days (bushera; longer gives alcohol)

• Round-1 summary of Muyanja et al. 2003 (bushera) and Phiri, Schoustra et al. 2019 (munkoyo), not checked
• Muyanja C.M. et al. 2003, lactic acid bacteria from bushera, International Journal of Food Microbiology 80:201–210

Also called ekitiribita, obushera ekitiribita.

Mildly sour thin millet porridge-drink.

1. Cook thin porridge of unmalted flour
2. Ferment slowlyup to 4 days

Safety: Slow acidification. Highest median total viable count of the Mbarara obushera categories (4.62 log CFU/ml).

• Mukisa I.M. et al. 2012, Int J Food Microbiol 160:1-10, doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2012.09.023
• Wikipedia, Obushera (outline only)
• Kiprotich et al. 2022 Mbarara survey (preprint, via Europe PMC)

Also called حلو مر, آبري, hilo-mur, abray, abreh ahmar (red abreh), sweet-bitter.

A dark, spiced sweet-sour drink made by soaking toasted fermented malt sheets. Drunk to break the fast in Ramadan.

1. Malt the sorghum6 days
2. Mix malt flour, sorghum flour and spice infusion into a dough and ferment24 h – 2 days
3. Bake thin sheets on a hot iron plate (saj, doka)about 15 min per sheet
4. Soak sheets in water, sweeten and strainhours

Safety: Long high-heat baking forms acrylamide (one study measured it).

• Mahgoub S.E.O. et al. 1999, Effect of traditional Sudanese processing of kisra bread and hulu-mur drink on their thiamine, riboflavin and mineral contents, Food Chem 67:129-133, doi:10.1016/S0308-8146(99)00074-6
• Abdelhalim T.S. et al. 2023, Phytochemicals of hulu-mur from sorghum landraces, Food Sci Nutr 11:2654-2662, doi:10.1002/fsn3.3275
• Sudan national ICH inventory, 17 Hilo-mur / Abre', https://www.ich-sudan.com/national-inventory/inventory/17-hilo-mur-abre (server returned 503; seen in search summary only)
• Dirar H.A. 1993, The Indigenous Fermented Foods of the Sudan, CAB International (standard reference; not read)

lighter, floral kombucha-like drink

1. Brew green tea, cool, dissolve honey
2. Ferment with jun SCOBY3–7 days · 20–24 °C

Safety: No peer-reviewed microbiome study of jun was found this round.

Also called कांजी वड़ा.

sour pungent drink with soaked fritters (Holi); keeps 4–5 days chilled

1. Mix mustard water in a clay or glass jar, stir once or twice a day with a dry spoon2–5 days (shorter in sun and heat, longer in winter)
2. Soak fried dal vadas in the kanji5–6 h to 1 day

• maayeka.com 2014 and whiskaffair.com kanji vada recipes (2–5 days)
• FAO Bulletin 134, ch. 6.3 (carrot kanji ratio)

Also called カツゲン, ソフトカツゲン, 活素 katsumoto, 活源, Soft Katsugen.

sweet lactic drink in paper cartons, sold almost only in Hokkaido

1. Factory lactic fermentation of milk base, dilution and sweetening

• Wikipedia (ja), 'ソフトカツゲン' (fetched 2026-10-16)

low-alcohol sweet drink; shelf life ≤2 days

1. Boil roasted barley in water20 min
2. Add sugar and baker's yeast; ferment overnight

• Fentie E.G. et al., "Cereal- and Fruit-Based Ethiopian Traditional Fermented Alcoholic Beverages", Foods 9(12):1781, 2020

Also called максым, бозо, maksym, bozo.

sour cereal drinks (Shoro brand bottled maksym)

1. Toast and grind grain; cook to porridge; add malt and starter; ferment briefly (maksym) or longer (bozo)

Also called mangisi, masvusvu (the cooked mash).

sweet-sour non-alcoholic drink; masvusvu is also the base of traditional beer

1. Malt finger millet; mill
2. Mix with water and heat slowly almost to boilingabout 80 min
3. Cool, dilute and strain
4. Ferment in an earthenware pot8 h

• Mangisi row, citing Zvauya R., Mygochi T., Parawira W. 1997, 'Microbial and biochemical changes occurring during production of masvusvu and mangisi', Plant Foods Hum. Nutr. 51:43–51, doi:10.1023/a:1007972428849
• Wikipedia (en), 'Mangisi'

Also called obushera, obutoko, bushera (Kiga), obushera omuteeganda.

Sweet-sour malted sorghum drink; base for other obushera types.

1. Malt sorghumsteep, germinate, sun-dry, grind (days)
2. Cook part of the flour into a thin porridge, cool, add raw malt flour
3. Ferment1-2 days

Safety: Shelf life 4-7 days at room temperature. A 2022 Mbarara survey found poor hygiene and many contaminants; the East African standard limit is below 2 log10 CFU/ml total viable count.

• Mukisa I.M. et al. 2012, The dominant microbial community associated with fermentation of Obushera, Int J Food Microbiol 160(1):1-10, doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2012.09.023
• Mukisa I.M. et al. 2017, Production of organic flavor compounds by dominant LAB and yeasts from Obushera, Food Sci Nutr 5(3):702-712, doi:10.1002/fsn3.450
• Muyanja C.M. et al. 2003, LAB from bushera, Int J Food Microbiol 80:201-210, doi:10.1016/S0168-1605(02)00148-4 (household pH 3.7-4.5, ethanol up to 0.27%)
• Wikipedia, Obushera, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obushera (names of types)

Also called obuteire, obutiire, obushera obuteire.

Sweet-sour millet drink, more sugary than ekitiribita.

1. Inoculate ekitiribita with millet malt
2. Ferment24 h – 4 days

Safety: Longer fermentations become mildly alcoholic.

• Mukisa I.M. et al. 2012, doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2012.09.023
• Wikipedia, Obushera (outline only)

Also called piwo kozicowe, piwo jałowcowe, psiwo kozicowe, lenkwar, piwo kadykowe (Warmia).

regional drink for weddings, christenings and funerals; on Poland's traditional products list (Sterdyń, 2015)

1. Crush and boil juniper berries; make hop decoction100 °C
2. Mix with honey/sugar and water; add yeast; ferment in a tightly closed vesseltwo days

• Wikipedia (pl), 'Piwo kozicowe' (fetched 2026-10-16)

Also called posca (Latin), φοῦσκα (phouska, Byzantine Greek), ὄξος (oxos), Roman soldiers' drink, phouska.

Posca was the Roman soldiers' and poor people's drink of sour wine or wine vinegar mixed with water. The only ferment is the vinegar, made when acetic acid bacteria sour wine; the drink itself is simply mixed.

Campaign ration, AD 360

A law of Constantius II and Julian lists the campaign issue as wine one day and vinegar (acetum) the next, alongside biscuit, bread, bacon and mutton.

Camp fare

Hadrian is said to have eaten camp food in the open, bacon, cheese and posca, to set an example to his troops.

Wine banned on campaign

Pescennius Niger is said to have ordered his soldiers to drink no wine on campaign and to make do with vinegar.

1. Wine sours into vinegar
2. Mix the vinegar with water

Safety: Vinegar made the drink sour; the Kelsey Museum notes it masked impurities in water and killed some bacteria.

• Historia Augusta, Life of Hadrian 10.2 (Latin text and Loeb translation), LacusCurtius
• Historia Augusta, Life of Pescennius Niger 10.3 (Loeb translation), LacusCurtius
• Codex Theodosianus 7.4.6 (AD 360, Constantius II and Julian to Helpidius), Latin text, Université Grenoble Alpes
• Mas A., Torija M.J., García-Parrilla M.C., Troncoso A.M. 2014, Acetic acid bacteria and the production and quality of wine vinegar, ScientificWorldJournal 2014:394671, doi:10.1155/2014/394671
• Kelsey Museum of Archaeology (University of Michigan), Posca recipe sheet (after the website Pass the Garum)
• Wikipedia, Posca

Also called सौवीरक, तुषोदक, sour barley gruel, fermented barley water.

sour fermented barley water used as diet and medicine

• Wisdom Library, Sauviraka. https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/sauviraka

Also called smreka, kleka, brin, brina.

mildly sour juniper soda

1. Cover berries with non-chlorinated water in a jar
2. Ferment on the counter10 days
3. Strain off the berries

• Balkan Lunchbox, 'Fermented juniper berry juice (smreka)' (via search summary)
• Backyard Forager, 'Smreka: easiest fermented beverage' (via search summary)
• Mountain Rose Herbs blog (via search summary)

Also called tobwa.

Thin sour maize drink.

1. Mash leftover sadza with water into a slurryminutes
2. Ferment overnight12 h

• GADAGA1999 (abstract); FERMDB row Tobwa
• Matumba L. et al. 2023, Reduction of aflatoxins during brewing of a Malawian maize-based non-alcoholic beverage, thobwa, Food Sci Nutr, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10261816/

Also called togwa.

sweet-sour cereal drink, also weaning food

1. Cook flour into thin porridge; cool
2. Add malt flour (amylase thins and sweetens)
3. Ferment24 h

• Tamang J.P., Watanabe K., Holzapfel W.H. 2016, Review: Diversity of microorganisms in global fermented foods and beverages, Frontiers in Microbiology 7:377
• Mugula J.K. et al. 2003, natural fermentation of togwa, International Journal of Food Microbiology 80:187–199
• Mugula J.K. et al. 2003, togwa fermented with lactic acid bacteria and yeast starters, International Journal of Food Microbiology 83:307–318
• Hjortmo S.B. et al. 2008, folate production by yeasts in togwa, FEMS Yeast Research 8:781–787

Also called ତୋରାଣି, tanka torani, tanka torani.

Sour, spiced, cooling rice-water drink for hot weather.

1. Collect rice water and ferment with curd0-36 h tested; 24 h optimal
2. Season with lemon, salt and tempered spices

Safety: A Gates-funded trial (2021-2024) reported gut-microbiome and serum-iron changes in women drinking torani.

• ICAR-CRRI Technology Bulletin No. 263, https://icar-crri.in/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/CRRI_Technology-Bulletin_No-263.pdf
• INCLEN Trust, Impact of traditional fermented rice water on maternal nutrition in Odisha, https://inclentrust.org/research/34/