If you can read Spanish, head on over to El Mercurio Online to read their article, “La lista “no oficial” de los tragos que toman los chilenos.” If you don’t read Spanish, Love to Travel Chile is here for you :) I have translated the article* for your reading pleasure. Some of the references in the article are extremely Chilean, so don’t worry if you don’t understand everything even in English.
A special thanks to reader German, who found this article for me!
*Please note, all emphasis is from the article, as well as all run on sentences or sentence fragments. All links to outside sources are mine.By: Natacha Ramírez, El Mercurio OnlineFruit, flour, eggs…No, these aren’t ingredients for baking a cake. And if we add to the list, ice, ice cream, chancaca, various soft drinks and a little bit of gunpowder, we have the necessary elements to concoct the most eccentric, popular, country, box office hit, epic national cocktails.Since the “Chilean ingenuity,” allows for anything and sometimes goes against all the norms of the Royal Academy of Good Drinking, the popular “combinations” made in Chile have worked themselves deep into the soul of the homeland. Just like Condorito or the little Lipigas doggy. Here goes an ample list with distinct varieties of our alcoholic jewels, to sample during the holidays.
► For thirst and for heat:
Fanshop: There’s nothing like a Fanshop (Fanta + beer on tap) to help pass those hot summer afternoons. The mix is decided by the consumer, but is always made with ice cold beer and preferably, waterfront scenery in front of your eyes. Like the TV commercials. It’s as refreshing as the Happy Chirimoya that is sold on the streets. And it usually leaves one even happier.
Wine with ice and sugar: An alternative from the canteens to alleviate the heat is wine with ice and sugar. May we suggest changing the ocean landscape for a more primitive scene?
► For parties:
Piscola: Proposed by some as “the national cocktail,” the popular piscola (Pisco + Coke) is the faithful companion of get togethers, cocktail gatherings and parties of the nation. A good piscola should have ice and lemon. And, although the origin of the pisco might be in doubt, the piscola is 100% Chilean.
► For hunger:
Chupilca: A nourishing cocktail inspired in the traditional and nutritious “ulpo” -with a base of water, flour, whole grain flour, and sugar- with one slight detail different, substitute wine for the water.
Malta con huevo (Malt with egg): Ideal for breakfast, especially if you have a “hangover.” It includes malt, eggs, sugar and cinnamon. It’s also a great title for a movie.
Piscolate: By the sound of its name, it could be a new dessert for children. But, along with chocolate milk, it has a fair share of ‘cunning’ when you add pisco.
Pihuelo: Similar to the chupilca, but instead of wine use, aguardiente, chicha, or both. Just as nutritious. Borgoña de fruta (Fruit burgundy): So that nobody says cocktails don’t go along with a healthy lifestyle. Just like a fruit salad, this combination mixes chopped, in season fruits, preferably, strawberries, peaches, or chirimoyas, plus sugar and ice. The white wine version is called Cleri and is a typical summer drink.
► For the youngsters:
Vino en melón (Wine in melon): This original cocktail that doesn’t require a glass and very well could be consumed on “Lost,” utilizes an open melon on one end, without seeds, in which you pour white wine and a little bit of sugar if you please. While it’s being consumed you can scrape the inside of the melon with a spoon so that it tastes sweeter. This is typical of the university trips to the beach. One variation, after having drank too many and lost your balance, includes a little bit of sand.
Yugoslavo: The name is probably because of the forced mix. ’It has’ beer and white wine. A delicacy according to its drinkers.
► For old men:
Navegado (navigated): Ideal to help pass the cold is hot wine with orange. Some call red wine like this “chambreao” or entibiado (from the French word chambre…there’s nothing more patriotic). You can also add sugar, cinnamon and cloves. You heat it in Maria’s bathtub, although some people used to heat it next to the heater. In reality, you could just warm it with a natural gas heater or the microwave?
Chuflay: With a base of aguardiente with bilz. It’s derived from a country drink in which they inject a watermelon with aguardiente and the alcohol is consumed with the flesh of the fruit, producing a very sweet cocktail.
► For minorities:
Mudai: A mapuche drink that is basically chicha made of wheat…But! In order for it to ferment the women who prepare it use their saliva.
Negra del Pueblo: A total alternative to energy drinks. This cocktail uses beer and instant coffee plus a few drops of syrup or sweetener.
► Gets the floor spinning:
Terremoto (Earthquake): A classic among classics. Emerging from “El Hoyo,” a bar in Estación Central, in actuality the cocktail is the most requested in “La Piojera,” the emblem of the guachaca movement. With a base of pipeño and pineapple ice cream, plus a touch of sour mix or fernet and a spurt of grenadine, its prestige has transcended borders, leaping to fame on an international television channel. Ever since, the second round ordered is called an “aftershock.”
Tsunami o erupción (eruption): Violent mix of bear, wine, pisco and ice. The eruption is seen as a necessary consequence.
► For battle:
Chupilca “del diablo”: This drink defies all parameters. According to national lore, the Chilean soldiers during the War of the Pacific, mixed aguardiente with gunpowder, which increased the ferociousness of the combatant, who without sweating it, “went to all” the battles. After drinking such an explosive mix, overcoming the enemy was just a small detail. Obviously, this is part of the mythology. ► For the savages: Cola de Mono(Monkey Tail): An angelic cocktail that brings good memories because it’s consumed during Christmas and New Year’s, that nostalgic time of year when you don’t have to study or work, just give gifts and have a good time. This drink has milk, condensed milk, orange peel, cloves, vanilla, coffee, aguardiente or pisco. It’s so pertinent to these festivities that it wouldn’t be strange to see Santa Claus arrive with a glass of cola de mono in his hand.
“Pipí” de León (Lion Pee): Pisco with Kem Piña and ice. It’s best to drink it without knowing its name or imagining it.
Pingüino (Penguin): Red wine and white wine. Nothing simpler. To warm up anybody in the South Pole.
Pajarete: Typical of the Norte Chico. It’s like a “penguin,” but overloaded. It has red wine, white wine, aguardiente and chancaca.
► For the manly men :
Fanfarrón: Sounds like a presumptuous guy, but it’s just Fanta with rum.
Pillín: The same. Just a play on words. Pisco with ginger ale. How ingenious.
Jote: Aside from being a man who “falls in love easily,” and “annoying,” it’s wine with cola, typically a low class. the secret is to use a little more wine than cola. ► For the desperate: Vino de la casa (Wine of the house): When the need to drink is too much, you can do recycling trick on a family budget. For this, you gather what’s left of diverse bottles of alcohol; you mix it all together and serve it in a jar. In spite of its doubtful origins it has a name with a certain noble lineage.
Bigoteado: It’s almost same as the last drink, but with an even more questionable origin. It includes the leftovers from glasses and jugs from the bars, which used to be sold at a lower cost.
Champaña de los pobres (Champagne for the poor): When you lack money, creativity is good. Real champagne has nothing on this mix of white wine with Sprite
Flaite: Variation of the jote. But this time the wine is accompanied by the soft drink rari cola.
Vino blanco con jugo en polvo(White wine with powdered juice mix): Just when you think that nothing could be worse, this unthinkable mix appears. You’d really have to be in desperate need….and drunk.
Pájaro Verde (Green Bird): No comment. Ask the jail.
► Bonus track: For the pirates: Perla Negra (Black Pearl): Worthy of Johnny Deep or of the “pirates of the Caribbean” (the musical group) this captivating cocktail includes grenadine, mint liquor, orange juice, and of course, no rum, just authentic Chilean 35° pisco.
