Make Your Own: Mavi!

Mavi,  as it is known in Puerto Rico, is also known as Maubry, Mabi,  and Maubi  in many of the different Caribbean islands.  A very refreshing, summery type of fermented drink, it is very tasty and simple to make.  For those of you that don't know, it is the "root beer" of the Caribbean!

Mavi brings back many memories of my childhood.  Growing up, Ginger Beer and Mavi meant summer!  That, along with shaved ice on every street corner, and the coquito man on every other corner, you never failed to have a full summer day as long as you had 25 cents in your pocket! LOL...

Now that I am far from my family, my childhood, and my roots, I am craving them.  I was craving Ginger Beer earlier this week (please see my previous post to make your own Ginger Beer) and am now craving Mavi.  What a better way to give my children a taste of their roots than by making a native drink that represents our heritage and culture?

Mavi Recipe
(http://www.ricanrecipes.com/recipes/detail.php?category_id=11&id=49)

Ingredients Click Picture to Enlarge

1 oz. of mavi tree bark 1 oz. of fresh ginger 1 whole cinnamon 12 1/2 cup of water 2 1/2 cups of sugar 2 1/2 cups of dark brown sugar

Directions

Boil the Mavi tree bark, the ginger, and the whole cinnamon in 1 ½ cups of water in a cooking pot for 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes, remove the pot from stove and with a strainer, filter the liquid and let it cool totally.(Like Totally Baby!!) Mix 12 cups of water, the sugar and the brown sugar in a big deep bowl. Add the Mavi liquid and mix well until it starts to foam. Poor the Mavi into glass bottles and seal with a plug made out of cloth. Do not plug it too tight or use your underwear to plug it sealed. The fermentation will create pressure just like a pressure cooker effect! Put the Mavi bottles in the Rican sun for about 4-6 hours or until you see that it is fermented. When this is done, place the bottles in the refrigerator so they can get very very cold.

Tips

The colder the Mavi, the better it tastes. Try making some limbers* with the liquid, it’s yummy. The Mavi bark tree can be found in health food stores and online at: http://herbs-depot.com * My Butterfly Cottage note: "limber" is basically a Popsicle but made in a Dixie cup.  In Puerto Rico, when I was growing up, there was a lady that sold them from her front window for ten cents each, and she had every flavor: coco, mavi, tamarindo, cherry, and mavi.  Most of the time, unless it was Sunday, she came to the window in her bata (or a mu-mu) to sell  them to the eager children of the neighborhood.  LOL!!!