Chicha Limena - 1 Review

If someone were to tell me five years ago that I was going to be drinking corn I would have said, “Well, that's weird, but okay whatever.” I was, and am, very apathetic. While I may not have been freaked out by the idea, this is not what I would have expected. My mind instantly goes to a nice buttery, salty ear of yellow corn. This on the other hand is made from purple maize, which is another beast entirely. It tastes nothing like the summer treat that most Americans are used to. I don't even know how to describe the taste, but it's apparently rich in antioxidants.

You take that purple maize and mix it in with some pineapple, lemon, cinnamon and cloves and you have Chica Limena, a traditional drink from Peru. When I opened this up I had no idea what I was in for. It's such an interesting collection of ingredients, which all can be overpowering in beverages, but they all blend together nicely. This is one of those drinks that you can make out each specific flavor in the taste if you concentrate. You can even taste the sugar cane. It's the spices that initially have me concerned, but they stay mostly in the background, sticking their heads up a little bit more in the aftertaste.

I have to say that I'm not really sure what I think about this. I keep going back to it, and the can is nearly empty, but I don't know if I can really say I enjoy it. With each sip I keep waiting for the pineapple flavor to get stronger, but it never does. I can't really hold that against them though, as it's not marketed as a pineapple drink, it's a maize drink and they do well enough with that.