Beers , wines and spirits are served in almost
every bar, café or restaurant at any time, but
there is a deposit on taking beer bottles out (canned
beer is one of the worst inventions to hit Peru
this century - some of the finest beaches are
littered with empty cans).
Most Peruvian beer - except for cerveza malta (black
malt beer) - is bottled lager almost exclusively
brewed to five percent, and extremely good. In
Lima the two main beers are Cristal and Pilsen.
Cuzqueña (from Cusco) is one of the best and by
far the most popular at the moment, but not
universally available; you won't find it on the
coast in Trujillo, for example, where they drink
Trujillana, nor are you likely to encounter it
in every bar in Arequipa where, not surprisingly
perhaps, they prefer to drink Arequipeña beer.
You can usually buy Cuzqueña in Lima though.
Soft drinks range from mineral water, through
the ubiquitous Coca Cola and Fanta, to home-produced
novelties like the gold-coloured Inca Cola, with
rather a homemade taste, and the red, extremely
sweet Cola Inglesa. Fruit juices ( jugos), most
commonly papaya or orange, are prepared fresh in
most places, and you can get coffee and a wide
variety of herb and leaf teas almost anywhere.
Surprisingly, for a good coffee-growing country,
the coffee in cafés and restaurants leaves much
to be desired, commonly prepared from either
café pasado (previously passed or percolated
coffee mixed with hot water to serve) or simple
powdered Nescafé. You have to search out the odd
café, which you'll find in most larger towns,
which prepares good fresh espresso, cappuccino
or filtered coffee.
Peru has been producing wine ( vino) for over
four hundred years, but with one or two
exceptions it is not that good. Among the better
ones are Vista Alegre ( tipo familiar) - not
entirely reliable but only around $1 a bottle -
and Tacama Gran Vino Blanco Reserva Especial,
about $7 or $8 a bottle. A good Argentinian or
Chilean wine will cost from $10 upwards.
As for spirits , Peru's main claim to fame is
Pisco. This is a white grape brandy with a
unique, powerful and very palatable flavour -
the closest equivalent elsewhere is probably
tequila. Almost anything else is available as an
import - Scotch whisky is cheaper here than in
the UK - but beware of the really cheap
imitations which can remove the roof of your
mouth with ease. The jungle regions produce
cashassa, a sugar-cane rum also called
aguardiente, which has a distinctive taste and
is occasionally mixed with different herbs, some
medicinal. Whilst it goes down easily, it's
incredibly strong stuff and leaves you with a
very sore head the next morning.
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