At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, South Africa went into lockdown and banned the sale of cigarettes and alcohol. The resulting pandemonium saw restless populations clash with police and loot liquor stores, but a surprising phenomenon arose as well; pineapples flew out of the baskets of the farmers who were selling them. Under normal circumstances, South Africans can be expected to collectively purchase 10,000 pineapples a day, but lockdown turned that number into 100,000 (Financial Express). This is an unprecedented shock to the demand of a perishable good. As the pineapple supply dwindled, prices skyrocketed. The USDA reports that pineapple prices tripled in South Africa from 28 cents per kilogram to over 90 cents. If the government would not allow the South Africans to buy their booze, they would use some Mzansi ingenuity to make it at home. For this purpose, they required pineapples.
Pineapple is a prime candidate for fermentation. The fruit is sweet and sour and has a rind with plenty of nooks and crannies. This means there is sugar to ferment, a natural acidity to discourage bacterial growth, and lots of places for yeast to hide on the bark. Making alcohol from such a fruit is easy and after about 7 days of fermenting a home-brewer can have a tangy wine with about 7-10% alcohol by volume (The Pineapple, pg 30). This beverage has been known around the world for quite some time. South Africans have been making it, just not in such great numbers. In Mexico, the traditional pineapple beer is known as tepache.
Pineapple wine is not only a solution for the thirsty living under de facto prohibition, it has also been heralded as a sustainable end product for an industry that struggles with waste. Pineapples, which are originally indigenous to South America, are now grown all over the world. If the fruits are not sold whole and eaten locally, they may be processed industrially into other finished products like juice or canned pineapple. Many pineapples go bad and are not consumed at all. On top of this, only about 35% of a pineapple is consumed as a food stuff (Oliveira). The rind of the pineapple must be cut away with a considerable amount of pulp left. Wine can help to absorb some of the spoilage and waste in the industry as it lasts longer and consumes all of the pulps within the fruit and even utilizes the rind and its natural yeast cultures.
Maybe we can still walk down to the liquor store to buy a bottle of wine, but making pineapple wine can also be a fun and easy way to find a new favorite refreshment. Here we have two recipes for pineapple wine, one considerably more rugged than the other.
From a Peace Corps cookbook which focuses on providing recipes in places where minimal ingredients are available:
“Pineapple Wine: 2 pineapples, 1‐2 kg sugar
Cut out the inside core from pineapples, chop, and mash them to a pulp. Add sugar (depending on the size of the pineapples). DON’T add any water! Keep covered for 10 days so that air can escape, but bugs and dirt can’t get in (a cloth and rubber band works well). After 10 days, taste. If it’s not sweet enough, add more sugar. Leave for another 2 weeks, more or less.”
“Where There Is No Whopper: 2001 Peace Corps Togo Guide to Fine Cuisine”
From On Tap Magazine South Africa:
“4 pineapples, 1 kg brown sugar, 8-9 litres filtered water, 2 small cinnamon sticks, brewer’s yeast (optional)
Chop up the pineapples and add the flesh and skins to a fermenter or sanitized bucket. The skins will provide wild yeast for fermentation. Add the water, sugar and cinnamon. I encouraged the fermentation process by adding a tiny quantity of Kveik Ragnarok yeast (maybe 5ml) that was left in the bottom of a jar after pitching into something else. Ferment at about 20°C for six days – taste from day four onwards to check for desired level of sweetness. If you have it, you could add ½ teaspoon of potassium metabisulphite to stop fermentation. Cold crash for 24 hours, keg and carbonate.”
Needless to say, pineapple wine is ridiculously easy to make. It is no wonder that South Africans, who had no other outlet for their booze cravings, turned to the spiky fruit in their time of need.
Grenfell, Nick. “BREW-IT-YOURSELF.” On Tap Magazine South Africa, pp. 14–16.https://ontapmag.co.za/wp-content/uploads/BIY.pdf.
Hampton, Lydia. The Pineapple: Production, Utilization and Nutritional Properties. Nova Science Publishers, 2018.
“COVID-19: Pineapple Demand Surges in South Africa over Potential Alcoholic Kick.” The Financial Express, 6 May 2020, www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/covid-19-pineapple-demand-surges-in-south-africa-over-potential-alcoholic-kick/1949826/.
Wellington. “Spike in Pineapple Consumption and Processing Amid Decline in Exports Due to COVID-19.” USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, 14 Aug. 2020, apps.fas.usda.gov/newgainapi/api/Report/DownloadReportByFileName?fileName=Spike in Pineapple Consumption and Processing Amid Decline in Exports due to COVID-19_Pretoria_South Africa – Republic of_08-14-2020.
Oliveira, Érica Resende, et al. “Production, Characterization and Acceptability of Different Alcohol-Based Pineapple Liqueurs.” Revista Verde de Agroecologia e Desenvolvimento Sustentável, vol. 10, no. 1, Jan. 2015, pp. 108–114. EBSCOhost, doi:10.18378/rvads.v10i1.2736
Tepache is a common homemade and commercial drink throughout Mexico. In the home, it is mostly made by fermenting pineapples, but recipes vary and commercial vendors use many more fruits and spices. To call tepache just fermented pineapple is to miss out on the true diversity of these lightly fermented fruit beverages that have existed in Mexico for centuries.
No one blinks an eye at the thought of scooping sugar into a cup of tea, but what of the other common pantry powder? Salt was the original addition to tea during China’s Tang Dynasty. The flavoring is even mentioned in the world’s first book on tea. Today, salt is still added to tea in Tibet and Kashmir.
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