What the @#$! is Mamajuana, Anyway?

You’ve probably heard of gin, rum, vodka, bourbon, and tequila. If you’re a little more advanced in the way of cocktails and other spirits, you probably know your way around mezcal, vermouth, and absinthe, too. But there’s a host of other libations with strange-sounding names, like cynar and campari. What the @#$! is this stuff, anyway?

Today, we’re going to demystify Mamajuana.

True, I had been warned. Before heading to the Dominican Republic with some friends at the end of March 2016, I had heard rumblings from previous DR-visiting veterans: “Mamajuana will make you loco,” it will “kick your flu from here to Timbuktu,” and, perhaps the strangest of all, it’s a “liquid Viagra that will secure you the man of your dreams.” (Thanks, guys, but Mr. Five O’Clock is the man of my reality.)

Still, I couldn’t help being curious about this mysterious libation from the Dominican Republic. The drink was readily available throughout the country; within two hours of landing in Punta Cana and lounging at one of our resort’s many restaurants, I already had a shot of mamajuana, sometimes written as Mama Juana, in hand. “Salud!” our server cried, as we toasted to our recent arrival in the DR.

Throughout our stay, I found this potent tipple to be delicious, but not for the faint of heart. After digging deeper into the drink’s history and customs, here’s what I learned about what some call the Dominican Republic’s version of “moonshine.”

Mamajuana wasn’t originally an alcoholic beverage. In fact, the native Taino Indians, the indigenous people of the Caribbean and Florida, first prepared mamajuana as an herbal tea. It wasn’t until after the arrival of that infamous explorer to the island of Hispanola Christopher Columbus that alcohol was added to the drink’s recipe.

A bottle of mamajuana is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re gonna get. Mamajuana is created by steeping a mixture of herbs and dried bark in rum, red wine, and honey for days (sometimes weeks or months). However, because the local roots, sticks, and leaves can differ from place to place, disparate combinations of ingredients can be used, producing regional variations in bottles of mamajuana. This explains why the version I consumed at Isla Saona, a tropical island located a short distance from the Dominican mainland, tasted spicier than the version I tried at our all-inclusive resort.

In fact, the term “mamajuana” refers to the container used to prepare and store the drink, not the end result. Mamajuana is likely related to the French term “Dame Jeanne” (Lady Jane), which is used to describe a large bottle with a narrow, short neck. This also explains why many variations of this libation can still be referred to as mamajuana.

There can be some pretty weird ingredients in your bottle of mamajuana. While the usual suspects for the herbs and bark incorporated into the mixture include things like cloves, agave leaves, star anise, and milkberry, it’s possible for items like grated tortoiseshell or certain unmentionable parts of a sea turtle to wind up in your bottle. (So just to be safe, you probably don’t want to buy mamajuana in a dilapidated shack off the side of the road.)

The Ultimate Taste Test

After returning home from Punta Cana with a bottle of mamajuana in my suitcase (are you surprised?), Mr. Five O’Clock and I decided to try a shot of it so he could see what I had been going on and on about. Mind you, this was a bottle I had picked up at a souvenir shop near Isla Saona that still had the macerated herbs floating around in all their glory; I had skipped the filtered, golden bottles available at the duty-free shops in favor of something that might give him a more “authentic” experience.

Mr. Five O’Clock picked up on the cloves, star anise, and cinnamon aromas right away. He immediately relayed that mamajuana smelled “almost like a muskier, not-quite-as-pungent version of Angostura bitters” and proceeded to make me sniff both mamajuana and Angostura bitters with my eyes closed. (To be fair, he wasn’t that far off!) He enjoyed the liquid’s deep golden brown color, as tawny port is one of his all-time favorite alcoholic drinks, and upon taking a sip, declared that it reminded him of a sweeter version of mulled wine.

Ultimately, though, Mr. Five O’Clock felt that the bottle of mamajuana “seems like a rip off; it’s not a value buy, given that most of your bottle is taken up by bark!” As he examined the bottle’s contents, however, I did catch him muttering to himself, “Well, it doesn’t look like there’s any sea turtle parts in here…”

At the end of the day, we both agreed that we wouldn’t reach for mamajuana over a bottle of bourbon, but if we were back in the Dominican Republic, we’d certainly partake in the local drinking customs. As they say, “When in Rome….”