Masato

Masato is a lightly alcoholic, milky-cloudy fermented drink of the upper Amazon, made from boiled, mashed cassava (yuca) that is left to sour and ferment in water over several days. It is a staple of many indigenous nations of Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Brazil, drunk through the day as food and refreshment as much as intoxicant, and poured for guests as an act of hospitality. The flavour is sweet-sour and tart, the body thick and faintly fizzy, the colour an opaque off-white. In its most traditional form the fermentation is started by chewing some of the cooked cassava, so that enzymes in the brewer's saliva help convert the starch to fermentable sugar.