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Street Cart · Spiced Ginger Drink

Ginger Beer

Ginger Beer — street food from Bocas del Toro, Panama
Photo: BTBB / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

Bocas del Toro's version is fermented for days with fresh ginger root, turning naturally fizzy without any added carbonation.

A sharp, spicy non-alcoholic drink made by grating and steeping fresh ginger, then sweetening and lightly fermenting the liquid. Vendors sell it ice-cold from coolers and glass bottles around Bocas Town.

Why it's made this way: Ginger beer arrived with the Caribbean migrant workers who settled Bocas del Toro's banana plantations, and it remains a signature refreshment of the province's Afro-Caribbean culture.
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Part of World of Street Food — 690 dishes from 118 countries. Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below. Photo credits.