MAUBY will adorn many a dinner table this Christmas in the Caribbean.

And there might be a good reason to drink up, particularly for those suffering from high blood pressure.

The drink from the mauby bark is quite popular in many Caribbean countries.

‘To your health’

For generations, folk medicine practitioners have claimed all sorts of health benefits from mauby.

Some claim it is an aphrodisiac, and that it might help with arthritis, for example.

Now a new study appears to give support to an earlier one, that mauby might be useful in lowering blood pressure.

It was conducted by Trinidad-born Kwame Amin, a student at The City University of New York’s Borough of Manhattan Community College.

“Folk remedies are popular there,” says Amin, a second-semester science major at BMCC.

“If you’ve got a health issue, people will always say, ‘Drink this, eat that.'”

Amin’s study was conducted on California blackworms, whose physiological responses are easy to observe with a microscope.

Caribbean conclusions confirmed

But the findings were consistent with the Trinidad study, which was conducted on hypertensive patients.

“There was a distinct lowering of their pulse rate, just as the Trinidadian doctor had reported in humans,” Amin says. “Our findings were consistent with his.”

Mr Amin’s work won him the first prize at this year’s Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students in the United States.

So what’s mauby?

The drink is made from the bark, and sometimes fruit, of the mauby tree.

Also known as ‘mavi’ in Puerto Rico, and ‘mabi’ in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, it is made with sugar and the bark and/or fruit of certain species of the mauby tree, a small tree native to the northern Caribbean and south Florida.

Recipes usually include other spices as well, aniseed being very common.

Haiti and the Dominican Republic are two of the largest Caribbean exporters of the bark and leaves.

Often, the drink is fermented, using a portion of the previous batch, while sometimes it is consumed unfermented.

Mauby is often bought as a pre-made syrup and then mixed with water (sparkling or still) to the consumer’s taste, but many still make it themselves at home.

Its taste is initially sweet, somewhat like root beer, but changes to a prolonged but not astringent bitter aftertaste. To many, it is an acquired taste.

There are several varieties of mauby commercially available in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

In several Caribbean countries, mauby is also a Christmas beverage.

Recipe

1 gallon water (16 cups)

1 stick of cinnamon

4 – 5 cloves

½ nutmeg, cracked

Sugar to taste

1. Place all the ingredients for the concentrate in a saucepan and bring to a boil until the liquid is reduced to half (¾ cup)

2. Let cool

3. Fill a large, clean bucket or container with the gallon of water

4. Strain the cooled mauby concentrate into the water (do not throw away the boiled bark and spices!), add the fresh spices and sweeten to taste. (Bear in mind that you will add ice when serving, so sweeten adequately)

5. Brew (using a large cup, dip into the mixture, fill the cup and then pour it back into the container. Do this for at least 3 minutes.)

6. Cover the container and set aside.

7. Add 1½ cups of water to the reserved bark and spices. Cover.

8. The following day, a full 24 hours later, open the container with the mauby and strain the liquid from the reserved bark and spices into the mixture and brew – for 3 minutes. At this stage, you will start to smell the ripening of the mauby.

9. Cover the container and set aside

10. Add another 1½ cups of water to the reserved bark and spices. Cover.

11. The next day, 48 hours later, strain and pour the reserved bark and spice mixture into the mauby (you may now discard the bark and spices) and brew for 3 minutes.

12. Cover the container and set aside.

13. Three hours later, taste the mauby for desired sweetness and strength. If you feel it is too strong, then add some water, adjusting to your taste.

14. With the strength and sweetness to your desired taste, strain the mauby into bottles – plastic or glass and referigerate.

15. Served chilled with ice. (www.tasteslikehome.org)