The ancestral artisanal cane spirit of the Pacific, distilled from fermented sugarcane guarapo in small copper stills. The mother spirit from which arrechón and tumbacatre are made, central to the Petronio Álvarez festival.
Viche is the ancestral artisanal cane spirit of the Colombian Pacific, originating with the Afro-descendant communities of the Valle del Cauca Pacific coast. Made by fermenting sugarcane guarapo and distilling it in small copper stills, it is the mother spirit from which the liqueurs arrechón (with chontaduro and borojó) and tumbacatre (with milk) are derived. Viche is central to the Festival Petronio Álvarez, the most important gathering of Pacific music and food, and it carries a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy heritage status through Buenaventura.
Clear, sharp and rustic, with the grassy sweetness of fresh cane up front and a clean, warming burn behind. Drunk neat at room temperature, it tastes of the mill and the still, more characterful than any industrial rum.
Fresh sugarcane juice is pressed and left to ferment into guarapo over several days, during which wild yeasts convert the sugars to alcohol. The guarapo is then distilled in small copper stills, usually in two passes, to raise the proof and concentrate the cane aromatics. The craft is in the fermentation (which depends on the local wild yeasts) and the cut of the distillate, where the heads and tails are discarded and only the heart is kept.
Variations
Arrechón macerates viche with chontaduro and borojó. Tumbacatre mixes it with milk and cinnamon.
On the Palate
Where Viche sits in the Colombian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 20How it's made
6 steps · 1 hour
- 120 min
Press 20 litres of fresh sugarcane juice from mature cane using a mill.
- 230 min
Pour the juice into a clean, open vessel, cover with cloth, and let it ferment 5-7 days until the bubbling slows and the liquid reaches about 6 percent alcohol.
Watch outLet the cane juice ferment five to seven days until the bubbling slows — that slackening fizz tells you the wild yeasts have converted the sugar and it's ready to distill.
- 35 min
Strain the fermented guarapo into a small copper still.
- 460 min
Heat the still gently and run the first distillation, discarding the first 200ml (heads) and the last 300ml (tails); collect the heart.
Watch outOn the first run, throw away the first two hundred and the last three hundred millilitres — keeping only the heart is what makes it clean and safe.
- 560 min
Run the collected heart through the still a second time to raise the proof to about 35-40 percent.
- 65 min
Rest the viche in glass for at least a month before drinking neat, at room temperature.
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