Pinolillo

Pinolillo is the national drink of Nicaragua, a cool, thick, faintly gritty beverage of toasted ground maize and a little roasted cacao, scented with cinnamon, allspice and clove and mixed with water (or milk) and sugar. A cousin of the older pinole, it is chocolatey and grainy rather than smooth, with a warm toasted-corn aroma and a pleasant, rustic body that never fully dissolves. It is non-alcoholic, nutrient-dense and so bound up with national identity that Nicaraguans call themselves pinoleros. Traditionally it is served cold from a jícara, a cup made from the hard shell of the jícaro gourd.