Manioc Beer

manoic beer. (mae’-nee-ak beeyr')

    An alcoholic drink made from the manihot plant. The first description of such a beer produced by the Tupi canibal tribes of the coastal regions of Brazil dates back to Hans Staden, Véritable histoire et description d’un pays habité…, written in 1557. The Tupinamba tribes were decimated in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but manioc beer is still the daily and sacred beverage in the Amazon and the favorite drink of the Jivaros. Syn: cassava beer.