A beloved Bolivian street cooler made from whole sun-dried, peeled peaches rehydrated overnight, then simmered with sugar, cinnamon and cloves. Served ice-cold in tall glass jars by vendors, each cup comes with a softened peach to eat once the drink is finished.
A traditional Bolivian beverage, especially popular around Cochabamba in the country's temperate valleys, whose name comes from the Quechua muquchinchi, meaning dried peach — the same whole, peeled, sun-dried peach used to make the drink. The peach itself is not native to the Americas: it spread from China through Persia and Roman Europe before the Spanish carried it to the Andes in the late 1500s.
Sweet, lightly tart and deeply fragrant with cinnamon and clove, it tastes like cold, spiced peach nectar. The rehydrated peach at the bottom is the prize — soft, syrupy and fun to fish out. Utterly refreshing on a hot Andean afternoon.
Overnight soaking plumps the dried peaches and releases their concentrated sugars and aromatics into the water, while gentle simmering with whole spices infuses warm flavor without bitterness from over-extraction.
Variations
Made with dried apricots, spiced with extra cinnamon, sweetened with raw sugar, served alongside somó and chicha by the same vendors.
On the Palate
Where Mocochinchi sits in the Bolivian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6How it's made
7 steps · 10 min
- 13 min
Rinse the dried peaches to remove dust, then place them in a large bowl.
- 2720 min
Cover the peaches generously with water and let them soak overnight to rehydrate.
Watch outSoak the dried peaches overnight until plump and soft — under-soaked fruit stays leathery and won't give up its sweetness to the water.
- 35 min
Transfer peaches and soaking water to a pot and add cinnamon sticks and whole cloves.
- 425 min
Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until the peaches are plump and soft.
Watch outKeep it at a gentle simmer, not a hard boil — boil the spices too hard and the brew turns bitter.
- 55 min
Stir in sugar to taste and simmer a few minutes more until dissolved.
- 630 min
Remove from the heat and let the brew cool completely.
- 760 min
Chill thoroughly and serve very cold, placing one peach in each glass.
