These species of yeast can produce alcohol up to 4 percent in strength but, unlike S. cerevisiae, Candida dies when alcohol levels reach higher concentrations. S. cerevisiae is not common in the South American environment because it is most widely associated with oak trees, which are not indigenous to the region, so the Indians utilized Candida. "It is much better to have 3 to 4 percent alcohol than nothing," Carvajal says.
Caravajal fermented his own chicha from C. tropicalis that he resurrected from fermentation vessels taken from the tomb to relive the experience of these prehistoric Indians. "The flavor was very good. The aroma was very good. The alcohol was relatively good, but the effect was horrible. Just two drinks of this chicha and I had this bad headache typical of aldehydes and esters."
He also recovered Rhodotorula mucilaginosa from the ancient fermentation vessels. Although one of the most abundant yeast species, it does not produce alcohol, rather it is associated with flowering plants, evidence that the Quitus folded flowers into the brew for flavor enhancement—and most likely to increase the kick of their low-alcohol drink: Adding plants such as Datura produces psychotropic effects.
"Chicha must be drunk young, while it is still fermenting, because it quickly develops a rancid taste with time," Carvajal says. "But if you drink it too early in the fermentation process, you will experience food poisoning because the bacteria, amoeba and harmful yeasts have not yet been killed off by the alcohol."
After much searching, I was able to sample a modern version of chicha in Mama Clorinda Ecuadorian Food, a Quito restaurant. It was made from cooked corn, cinnamon, orange leaves, coriander and several other ingredients, including rotten pineapple skin added to initiate fermentation in the mix, which was contained in a plastic gallon-size jug. The cloudy yellow brew looked like a drink from an organic juice bar. It smelled of spicy cardamom and cinnamon, and fruity papya and fermented pineapple. It tasted delightful: lightly carbonated, with a sweet pineapple and papaya flavor, and a thick body and a clean finish.
"This is only about 2 to 3 percent alcohol," I was told by the restaurant manager, Roberto Guoma, "because we made it today. By tomorrow it will be 4 to 5 percent." The chef, Nelson Cardenas, who makes the chicha daily, generously provided his recipe for readers interested in brewing their own chicha, which uses rotten pineapple rind to initiate fermentation:
Recipe: Morocho Chicha
- 0.45 kilograms of morocho corn flour
- 500 grams of brown sugar (panela)
- Aromatic herbs (lemon verbena, cedron (quassia family, Simaroubaceae, native to Colombia and Central American), leaves of the orange tree
- 10 grams whole cloves
- Five grams cinnamon sticks
- Five grams allspice
- 250 grams white sugar
- Skin of one pineapple
1. Boil two liters of water
2. Mix the morocho corn flour in one half liter of water and mix with the two liters of boiling water. Boil for 10 minutes.
3. Boil two liters of water and add the herbs, orange tree leaves, cloves, cinnamon and allspice. Cook for 10 minutes and strain out liquid.
4. Combine the water–corn mix with the water–herb mix. Strain and add the pineapple skin.
5. Ferment for one day.
6. Check the consistency of the drink and add more water as needed. Add the brown sugar and white sugar until sweetened to taste. Add ice and serve.
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14 Comments
Add CommentThe slide with the very short mummies is confounding without an explanation - what is that a picture of? It's not them, is it full scale, PC generated; what? By itself, it is macabre.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI object to the word "new" to qualify this "discovery"; the writer states, "he coaxed a community of yeasts, which had lain dormant in the entombed vessels since A.D. 680, back to life." By definition, new is never-before. Coaxed BACK to life; they're old, not new. It's not a discovery, it's a stumble into the past, serendipity. You cannot bring something back to life and call it new! "Look, here for the second time - I mean first time, this new, recently dead thing."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe bones from this tomb have been removed to a museum for study and replaced with manikins to show how the bodies were found in the fetal position. Many other tombs here are still undergoing excavation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisC. thea is a new species based on genetic sequencing and molecular biological analysis and it is recorded as such in the paper published this week in the scientific journal cited in the article. This is not the first time a new species thought to be extinct has subsequently been found alive. The coelacanth (an ancient lobe fin fish) is a famous example of this. The yeast does not form spores. It was not viable without the specialized process Dr. Carvajal has devised to revive ancient yeast. The process involves rehydrating the cells,repairing the damaged cell membrane, and restarting their metabolism.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDarwinian/Mendelian evolution includes microbes, the dominant form of life on Earth. This is not a new species of Candida but a phase in the evolution of the Candida microbial breed that we have identified in modern times to date. Some phases in microbial evolution have become extinct, as we well know happened with primate fossils, such as Lucy. Anti-microbial pharmaceuticals have speeded up microbial evolution, so that many microbes can now defend themselves against what we see, with our limited knowledge, as old-line antibiotics, for example, that really haven't been around that long. Some modern microbes have learned to thicken their cell wall when attacked and/or to bombard the antibiotic molecule with an enzyme that snips off its tail, crippling it. Giving rise to an ID wisecrack that some bugs today are smarter than the drugs.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSign me up for a growler! Hold the human feces though.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs stated in the article, the bodies were found in the fetal position, which is why they appear "short". What was not stated, but was probably true, is that the bodies were dessicated (and then wrapped) before interment, which is why the bodies appear to be less bulky than you would expect from being in the fetal position.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs someone else has so verbosely pointed out, "new" has multiple meanings, and in this context means "previously unknown or undecribed by science". The headline is perfectly accurate, if easily misconstrued by the scientifically illiterate.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisR. Douglas Fields, very impressive report about some very impressive work.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt seems to me, unhygienic eating habits alone with near starvation, from time to time, are the circumstances that give us alcoholic beverages! No doubt such was discovered and rediscovered in many places over many spans of time.
Richard Carlson
They started their fermented drinks using feces and diseased phlegm? I'm not mourning the demise of this particular "culture".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhile the word "new" can obviously have "relative" meanings, perhaps what's even worse than any so-called "scientific illiteracy", is the sense of grandiosity and "entitlement" that it must take to so casually resort to rudeness & name-calling over a disagreement. Although I think the, um, "scientific" term for that is clinical Narcissism! ;-p
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe method used to initiate fermentation is fascinating, but of course these people had no idea about germs--or the mechanism of fermentation for that matter. In fact German biologist Theodore Schwann was ridiculed by leading authorities when he first proposed the idea that fermentation was the result of microbes consuming sugar and excreting alcohol and carbon dioxide in 1839. (Schwann's scientific career was ended after only 5 years.) These ancient people were simply following ritualistic practices that had been found to work through trial and error.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMing..., I intended no rudeness nor name-calling. I consider it a fact that the scientifically literate would have no problem understanding what was meant by the term "new" in the context in which it was used. I'm sorry that I couldn't find a more polite term in which to couch my comment. You, on the other hand, were deliberately rude and resorted to name-calling. You read way too much into a simple statement.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Ipias from Quito were a human cultural group whose believes were too much different to those of the Occidental Culture. When they died, they returned to mother earth, they didn`t go to heaven. In that context, they made deep tombs to facilitate the dead`s last trip to their original homeland. If we think on the introspective character of this believes (i.e. coming back to the bowels of the earth)it is not surprising that live in the form of food (i.e. chicha) came from their oun bowels, that is, from their feaces. On the other hand, the aparent absence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in the fermentations systems in America (unpublished studies of fermented beverages from ancient indian cultures of America) can probably point out to an ecological characteristic very much different to that of the European, where wine and beer were produced thousands of years before, using the abovementioned species. Moreover, if we think on the tradicional, old fashioned way of making wine, we have to remind that grape juice was obtained after steping with naked feet on the grapes. I need to remark that Candida yeast species are also found as inhabitants in feet, in some cases causing athlete`s foot disease.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs for the pejorative comment about the culture that some reader posted, I would ask for the wide and profound criteria about the costumes of our and his ancestors.