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Street Vendor Classic · Bittersweet Bark Brew

Mauby

Mauby — street food from Trinidad and Tobago
Photo: Ryan Chen-Wing / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.5

It's brewed from the boiled bark of a Caribbean tree, yet tastes closer to root beer than anything medicinal.

Mauby is a bittersweet Caribbean drink made by boiling the bark of the mauby tree (Colubrina elliptica) with spices like cinnamon, clove and star anise, then sweetening the strained liquid and shaking or pouring it until it froths. In Trinidad it's poured from big jugs at roadside stalls and lunch counters, and also sold bottled and carbonated.

Why it's made this way: Its bittersweet, slightly medicinal flavor divides outsiders but is a genuine taste-of-home for Trinidadians, tied to Sunday lunches and street-corner vendors for over a century.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3443 dishes from 118 countries. Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below. Photo credits.