The Cocuy an iconic drink of the Venezuelan gastronomy, part II

Continuing with Cocuy as a Venezuelan export product, such as has Tequila for Mexico making National Flag for the Mexican gastronomy. We also believe that this product, currently with a clandestine production, and / or craft with peccary infrastructure, has not had the necessary encouragement.

 All this has caused the digging of the holed in places with no weather conditions, reason that producers combine the care taken for any hint of rain during the baking, because it could delay and even " astonish " process, thus losing all the work. After baking the cocuy the leaves are broken off pilarlas or taken to a rudimentary press to extract all possible guarapo, then they place it in pipes or drums (special brass barrels with a capacity of about 220 liters). Each pipe or Cuba as told, id filled with juice or guarapo of some 20 to 30 heads of cocuy, depending on the size, then you add water: when the juice is pure cocuy of pena you do not need to add anything but this does not yield much liquor and is very expensive in man hours / work, so they usually add to it sugar or brown sugar and molasses (if pure sugar liquor), this to accelerate the fermentation process, and to make it last longer. Once you have the exact point of fermentation, most of the time it's done literally with" eyes a guess. This must seems like wine it goes from about 5-7 degrees of alcohol, then you are ready for the next step which is boiling it in a Ollon. The Ollon is a big metallic pot with two holes at the top of the Ollon. In the upper hole you poor the wine and a paddle that is used to stir the contents that are inside, preventing solids to settle and burned, as this will ruin the taste of the drink.

 The first liquid that is extracted can be up to 80 degrees of alcohol, and is called pringote, is widely used for medicinal purposes. In distillation the drink gradually reduces its degrees of alcohol. The following Cocuy from the pringote has a range of 75, 70, 65 degrees and thus degenerates gradually until it becomes a liquid with few degrees of alcohol called Aguaza. Depending on the degree that it’s given to the cocuy and according to the mixture the Cocuy will be from first, second or third class, as appropriate. The elders say that the best cocuy was 7 × 8 (56 º) and it was for men, because to drinking cocuy at this degree you must have a foolproof throat, compare to the best wiski that is just above the 40 degrees of alcohol.

 To achieve high quality it is necessary that the final product contain at least 60 % of pure Cocuy and 40% from another component such as water, brown sugar or sugar, a rule from the Association of Craft Producers of Cocuy who chairs the new producer of the ruble Foncho Zalazar, plans to formalize the Municipality of Urdaneta entity protected by law to regulate artisanal cocuy production in the state. The mos recognized popultaions producers of cocuy are :Bobare, Tocuyo , Quíbor and Siquisique in Lara state. However, the most prized of Venezuela cocuy is made in Pecaya a small town of Falcon State, where artisan produce 200,000 liters / year. This cocuy has reached such a level of quality that has earned the second designation of origin granted in this country after the Chuao cocoa.

 Considering that each the plant Agave Cocuy pays only a bottle per plant, that this plant is not cultivated but develop in the wilderness each issue takes about seven years to reach maturation state, the Venezuelan government has created the " Agave program " in order to promote the use of this species in a sustainable manner. In the same order of ideas, the Government of Falcon state has declared it a “cultural heritage product of the region."
 "Putting the country we are, in the place we want." 

Editor : Antonio Pestana '

 apestana@iconosdevenezuela.com

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