Emoliente

Emoliente is a hot, soothing herbal drink of Peru, built on toasted barley and a handful of medicinal plants — flax (linseed), Andean horsetail, boldo, alfalfa and ribwort plantain — then finished with a squeeze of lime and sweetened to taste. Served warm in a glass from stainless-steel pushcarts by vendors called emolienteros, it is drunk above all at dawn and dusk as a restorative, and is faintly slippery on the palate from the mucilage the flaxseed releases. It is non-alcoholic, and across Lima it became so popular that an emolientero stood on practically every street corner.