There are unique drinks prepared in every region of Colombia and in Bogotá a wide variety of these drinks are available. I’ve been trying as many as possible during my short stay in Bogotá. Don’t worry, the majority aren’t alcoholic! This is not an exhaustive list, just what I’ve been able to try and what I’ve seen is most common in this city.
Aguapanela: panela, unrefinded sugarcane, dissolved in water. Either hot or cold and usually with lemon. In Costa Rica the family I was staying with would have this for lunch nearly every day, they called is fresco (it was served cold).
Aguardiente: Colombia sugarcane liquor made with anis. Very strong and usually drunk in shots with lemon. Colombia also produces rum and it’s common to be out at a bar or Colombian restaurant and watch another table order an entire bottle of rum or aguardiente with shot glasses and lemon and down the whole thing!
Canelazo: Hot, alcoholic, cinnamon drink. Made with hot water, panela, cinnamon and aguardiente, sometimes clove and extra spices too. It tastes like Christmas! Very spicy and mildly alcoholic. A hotel nearby was serving this up for free next to their nativity scene (which are EVERYWHERE in this very Catholic country).
Jugo, en agua o con leche: fruit juice. A huge variety of fruits is cultivated in Colombia due to the variations in altitude and climate throughout the country. Bogotá is at the center of it all, so you can find fruit juices of any kind. Usually the fruit is blended with sugar and either water or milk. Fresh mango, mora (berry) and orange juice are my favorites.
Chocolatada: hot chocolate. Cacao is also grown in Colombia, but very little. I’ve tried two different types of hot chocolate while here, and both were prepared the same way. Milk was heated and a piece of chocolate was blended or whisked into it. The first chocolatada I tried was very rustic, prepared with a ball of “chocolate” made of cacao, cinnamon, cloves and lentil, soy, wheat, corn and peanut flours, you had to sweeten it to your liking. It tasted like hot chocolate toast; it was more of a food than a drink! The other was made simply with a piece of dark chocolate whisked in to milk.
Coffee: duh! Colombia is known worldwide for producing some of the highest quality coffee. However, most of the best stuff is exported, bummer. Juan Valdéz Coffee Company, a Colombian coffee company found all over Bogotá, has very high quality standards as well as social and environmental regulations. They have given back tremendously to the cafeteros, coffee growers, by building schools, hospitals and coffee processing facilities, among other social developments. Their coffee shops feel just like Starbucks though, with tons of options and take out cups. I had fun tasting this street coffee served out of a Ghostbuster-looking contraption; you can order tinto (black coffee, not red wine!) or café (short for café con leche).
Aromática: fresh, herbal tea. What I have been drinking the most of. It is traditionally prepared by heating water with panela to a boil and steeping fresh yerbabuena in it (mint, produced in abundance here). I’ve had it additionally with berry-infused water, hibiscus flower and my favorite, fresh lemon grass! I’m taking panela and tons of tea bags of dried yerbabuena and lemon grass with me to continue preparing this. It’s sweet and cozy and the smell is invigorating!
Avena: cold, sweet oat milk: You can find this anywhere on the street. They don’t tell you how it’s made but it tastes like sweetened condensed milk! Very thick, sweet and rich. It’s a snack more than a drink.
Cerveza: beer! What surprised me most after coming from Costa Rica is the wide variety of national beers here in Colombia. In Costa Rica you basically had two national beers to choose from. Here, I can’t keep track! It’s cheap, between $1 to $2 a bottle, and not bad. There are also microbreweries here, even one in Bogotá that has a bar a few blocks away from where I am staying, called the Bogotá Beer Company (BBC). My first night I was invited to try their sampler, a taste of their six beers. After drinking the same beer for three months I was psyched! I never drank beer before this trip, everyone back home knows that, but all of a sudden I’ve acquired a taste for it! Thankfully, because it’s cheaper than any other drink and I’ve still got a lot of traveling to do!
Sodas: Lots of brands, super sweet, nearly all owned by some transnational corporation. This cola is called Colombiana: la nuestra (ours), made by Postobon, Colombian soda corporation, merged with Pepsi and FritoLay. Awesome.
Té de Coca: Last but not least, the most controversial drink: coca leaf tea. No, it is not illegal. No, it is not a drug. Cocaine is derived from the coca leaf but it is heavily processed. The plant itself is central to many Andean cultures (Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador too). The leaf is either chewed or steeped in water as tea. It has several medicinal purposes but is mostly used as a MILD stimulant to suppress hunger, thirst, pain and fatigue. Just from chewing or drinking the tea one does not feel the psychoactive effects of cocaine; it’s perfectly normal to drink. I like it sweetened with panela because otherwise it barely tastes like anything, a little like mild mate. I could go on about the coca controversy in this country but I have not deeply researched the subject. Suffice it to say that the war against the drug trade is in full swing here, it has seriously impacted the lives of many people (especially farmers), but it is progressing, slowly. It ALL begins back home in the states and will NEVER end unless the demand for illicit drugs decreases.
