Chicha Morada Shandy
Corn has become a through line at BRUTØ in Denver, showcased in Bar Manager Andrew Booth’s Chicha Morada Shandy.
BARTENDER andrew booth | Photos: Mike Finocchiaro
Grains are the backbone of downtown Denver’s BRUTØ. The chef’s counter-style restaurant speaks to the agricultural strength of Colorado while paying homage to Latin American flavors and indigenous ingredients central to its tasting menu.
“We spend a lot of time crapping on grain and corn, but there is so much there—not only fundamentally for Central and South America, but also who we are as people, nutritionally,” says Bar Manager Andrew Booth. When developing the concept for the restaurant, Rising Stars alum Kelly Whitaker and Chef Michael Diaz de Leon wanted to champion those crops while prioritizing sustainability, with the bar program working in tandem to create highly harmonious pairings. “Food and beverage work in lockstep,” explains Booth, “we are always responding to the food.”
When tasked with designing a non-alcoholic beverage pairing for a Yucatan corn tamal with mushroom barbacoa and salsa verde, Booth thought of another Colorado business putting a spotlight on corn: Dos Luces. The South Denver brewery and soda-maker focuses on gluten-free, corn-based beverages like Chicha Morada, an ancient, lightly carbonated Peruvian drink made from purple corn. “Corn in beverages are super unique,” says Booth. “A very specific flavor profile—sweet but starchy, with great mouthfeel.” The beverage is spiced with cinnamon and clove, which mirrored the warm spice in the barbacoa, so using the soda in a Chicha Morada Shandy seemed like a great fit.
Chicha Morada, Purple Peruvian Corn, Tepache, Fermented Pineapple Juice, and Agua de Jamaica, and Sorrel
To heighten the tropical fruit while incorporating acid, Booth chose two components with equally rich history rooted in Latin America: tepache and sorrel. For the tepache, a puréed pineapple spiced with allspice and clove is naturally fermented for three to five days, then strained into a rich, viscous syrup. The sorrel, a Jamaican tea-based punch, is made from hibiscus flowers steeped with baking spices and Oaxaca chiles. He blends the deeply sweet drink with xanthan gum, then charges it in a cream whipper to make a pillowy foam that tops the Chicha Morada and tepache. The three components come together in a sip that’s bright in flavor while backed by warm spice.
Corn has become a through line for the menu at BRUTØ, both in dishes and cocktails. In addition to sourcing the Chicha Morada, Booth does plenty of tinkering in-house to highlight the ingredient, from cold-pressing heirloom corn for a shrub, turning corn koji into an amazake, and lacto-fermenting masa to use in drinks like Tejuíno de Jalisco. Because masa doesn’t hold for more than two days, cross-utilization between the bar and kitchen is essential. “It’s such a fun way to experience food and to learn,” says Booth. “We have been playing non-stop since we got here.”
