Mauby
Boiled mauby bark and spices — the Arawak and Carib preparation of the Lesser Antilles, mauby women selling it from street corners across Barbados and Trinidad.
- 1 ozmauby bark(dried pieces)
- 6 cupswater
- 1 wholecinnamon stick
- 4 wholecloves
- 1 cupsugar(to taste)
- 2 dashangostura bitters(optional)
- 1Boil mauby bark with cinnamon and cloves in water for 15 minutes.
- 2Strain and add sugar while hot.
- 3Add bitters if using.
- 4Cool completely and refrigerate.
- 5Serve over ice.
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Mauby is a traditional Caribbean bark beverage with a history stretching back to indigenous Arawak and Carib peoples of the Lesser Antilles, who consumed a drink made from the bark of the Colubrina elliptica tree — called the mauby tree — long before European colonization. The drink is particularly associated with Barbados, Trinidad, and the Eastern Caribbean islands, where mauby vendors (called mauby women) traditionally sold the beverage from buckets or large containers on street corners. The bitter, slightly medicinal quality of mauby bark — which contains saponins that give it a distinctive bitterness softened by sugar — is an acquired taste that Caribbean islanders develop from childhood. Commercial mauby syrup became available throughout the Caribbean diaspora, making the drink accessible to diaspora communities in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada.
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