A taste of Tuba

 I have always been curious about the guys who sell drinks from a large gourd that they carry around. Yesterday I settled at Roberto's for a coffee while waiting for John to finish at the gym. The young waiter went out to a drink vendor and returned with a plastic cup of liquid and announced that it was delicious. Later, I asked him what it was and he said "tuba"...all natural and good. Did I want him to get one for me? After a moment of hesitation I thought "why not?'

He tried to explain what the "floaties" were in the drink...nuts and chopped up apples! He stumbled over his explanation of the liquid...something about coconut trees. The drink was sweet and had a slightly unusual flavour. I sipped it tentatively but didn't eat the apple and nuts. Our morning conversation with friends had centred around the topic of a parasite (amoeba) that is water born and very common in Mexico. About halfway through the drink I had convinced myself that I would either be parasite ridden or die of bubonic plague!

Curiosity drove me to research online:

In Mexico, tuba is primarily a coastal drink. Coconut palm sap is fermented to make the clear, white, sweet wine called tuba. To collect the sap, workers climb the palm tree in the morning and evening and bruise the coconut flower stalk until it starts to ooze its liquid. The stalk is tied with bamboo strips into a special bamboo container to catch the sap. Crushed tanbark from the mangrove tree is dropped into the container to give the sap a reddish color and to hasten its fermentation. As many as three flowers from one coconut tree can be made to yield sap. Each flower produces tuba for two months, after which it dries out and is cut from the tree.

The liquid actually begins to ferment while still in the bamboo container on the tree, but the alcohol content increases considerably with longer fermentation. Tuba quenches the thirst, is good for indigestion, and makes conversation flow easily.

So far, so good. I didn't notice alcohol in the drink but I didn't finish the entire cup either!