08 Feb Colombian drinks I.
Alcoholic drinks
The most popular Colombian beer brands are Club Colombia, Águila and Poker. You can easily find these in any store or bar. My personal favourite is Club Colombia, which is somewhere between average and premium beers.
One of Bogotá’s famous bar chains is BBC – Bogota Beer Company – and it has lots of bigger or smaller bars around the city. They serve hand made beers and delicious meals. BBC is a popular meeting point with slightly higher prices (a mug of beer costs around 7 500 – 15 000 COP).
Rum is also well-loved in Colombia. Some local rums are Ron Medellín, Ron Santa Fé or Ron Viejo de Caldas, all with a different vintage. They have fair prices and they taste really great. 🙂
Colombia does not technically have a local wine, they import from Chile and Argentina – the problem is that due to import taxes, wine is extremely expensive, “average” bottles start at 25 000 COP.
Fruit juices
And now comes the most interesting topic, the freshly made fruit juices.
The fruits/fruit juices are incredibly cheap in Colombia – a lot of them are not even known in Europe. From the simplest to the most exclusive restaurant, through the street vendors and bars, everyone sells fresh fruit juices (“jugo”) made from a variety of fruits. For only 3000 – 5000 pesos you can get a tall glass of fresh fruit juice (water/milk plus the fruit) anywhere. Here are a few examples:
- Banana – smaller sized than in Europe
- Ripe banana or green banana (Plátano Maduro/Plátano Verde) – they use these for frying, serve them with entrées and they are very delicious (“Patacón”) – two/three times the size of European bananas
- Curuba – similar to Maracuyá (passion fruit), they make great fruit juice out of it with milk
- Feijoa – also a great ingredient for fruit juices
- Guanábana with milk
- Guayaba
- Lulo – one of the most popular fruits in Colombia, they use it mostly for fruit juices
- Mango – they drink it as a juice or eat it in itself as well. It makes a very interesting combination with salt, which you can try on practically every corner
- Maracuyá (passion fruit) – great fruit, well-known in Europe as well (often it comes from Colombia to their stores)
- Papaya
- Pineapple – it’s sweeter and much cheaper, than its European version
- Tomate de Árbol – a mix of tomato and kiwi, they make great fruit juice out of it
- Chontaduro – it’s very popular around Cali, they eat the cut up fruit pieces with honey, the flavor is quite interesting
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