A warm, viscous Peruvian herbal street drink simmered from toasted barley, flaxseed, horsetail and other herbs, finished with lime and honey, sold from morning carts as a tonic.
A traditional medicinal street beverage, introduced during the Spanish colonial era as a barley-based tisane and localized in 19th-century Peru by fusing European herbal practice with Andean ethnobotanical knowledge; sold from carts (by ubiquitous Lima emolienteros) as a barley-and-flaxseed herbal tonic.
Warm, soothing and faintly nutty from toasted barley, with a silky, slightly slippery body from the flax gel. Lime brightens it and honey rounds it out. It tastes wholesome and herbal, like a gentle hug in a cup.
Toasting the barley develops nutty Maillard flavors, while flaxseed releases soluble mucilage that thickens the drink into its characteristic silky, viscous body.
Variations
With aloe vera (sabila), with alfalfa juice, or with cat's claw (una de gato) for added remedies.
On the Palate
Where Emoliente sits in the Peruvian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
8 steps · 10 min
- 15 min
Toast the barley in a dry pan until fragrant and golden.
Watch outToast the barley just to golden and nutty-smelling — take it too dark and the whole drink turns bitter.
- 210 min
Add water and simmer the toasted barley.
- 35 min
Add flaxseed and let it release its gel.
Watch outSimmer the flaxseed until the liquid turns visibly slippery and silky — that gel is what gives emoliente its body.
- 43 min
Stir in horsetail and other dried herbs to steep.
- 55 min
Simmer until the liquid turns slightly thick and amber.
- 61 min
Strain out the solids into cups or a jug.
- 71 min
Stir in fresh lime juice to taste.
Watch outStir the lime in off the heat, right at the end — boiling it turns the fresh sourness flat and bitter.
- 81 min
Sweeten with honey or sugar and serve hot.
