Chupilca is a colonial beverage that consists of mixing red wine with toasted flour. Its name may derive from the “cupilca” or “kupilca” from the Mapuche culture, which is a traditional mixture of toasted flour with apple chicha.
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How to make Chilean Chupilca?
This is a refreshing beverage consumed on hot days, whether at home, on countryside outings, parties, or wakes. It’s reputed to be intoxicating but also very nutritious.
Nutritional Information
Category: Cocktails
Cuisine: Chilean
Calories: 400
Preparation: 10 minutes
Servings: 4 people
Recipe for Chupilca with Toasted Flour
Ingredients
- 1 liter of Chilean red wine
- 5 tablespoons of toasted flour
- Sugar
Preparation
- Chill the red wine for at least a couple of hours.
- Pour the wine into a large glass pitcher and add the toasted flour, stirring with a spoon until no lumps remain.
- Add sugar to taste and stir well until completely dissolved.
- Serve the chupilca immediately, well chilled, in a tall and wide glass.
Origin of Chilean Chupilca
At the beginning of the 20th century, chupilca became a popular beverage as desired as chicha or pipeño in the old fondas and bars of La Chimba and the Mapocho sector.
The RAE (Real Academia Española) establishes that the name chupilca may originate from the Quechua expression “chupirka” or “chupi,” which roughly means “soup,” but there is no consensus on this.
Vicente Pérez Rosales in his book “Recuerdos del Pasado (1814-1860)” recounts that in 1848, when the first group of Chileans set sail to work in the gold mines during the California Gold Rush, among their supplies were “six sacks of toasted flour” and “two barrels of wine from Concepción,” demonstrating its importance and rootedness in the popular world of the time.
Chupilca del Diablo: Myth or Reality?
According to legend, the Chupilca del Diablo was a “cocktail” of aguardiente and gunpowder that would have been very popular among Chilean army soldiers during the War of the Pacific.
The consumption of this beverage supposedly provided vigor and greater physical strength to those who consumed it, turning Chilean soldiers into fierce and fearsome fighters.
However, the truth is that there is no official or private record that mentions or confirms its consumption, nor records of the availability of aguardiente as part of the food each soldier received as part of their “ration.”
Some historians conclude that while it was not a popular beverage, there is the possibility that some soldiers obtained the aguardiente clandestinely and that in the horror of war, they may have consumed it.
Did You Know?
The truth is finally that the consumption of sulfur and/or potassium nitrate (main components of gunpowder) is considered extremely toxic and harmful to the human body, causing conditions ranging from extreme irritation to gastric burns that cause internal bleeding, severely attacking the liver and kidneys.
