Kasiri
Kasiri, also called kaschiri or cassava beer, is a fermented drink made from the cassava root by Indigenous peoples of Suriname, Guyana and Venezuela. Among the Kalina of Suriname it is an important part of celebrations and a way of welcoming visitors.
Key facts
- Origin
- Indigenous peoples of Suriname, Guyana and Venezuela
- Main ingredient
- Cassava (manioc) root
- Method
- Grated, pressed in a basketwork press, juice fermented
- Occasions
- Kalina celebrations; offered to visitors
- By-product
- Kasripo (cassareep), a syrup boiled from cassava juice
A drink from the cassava root
Cassava, also known as manioc, is a starchy root and staple food native to South America, as the Timothy S. Y. Lam Museum of Anthropology at Wake Forest University notes. Wikipedia’s section on Surinamese cuisine names Amerindian cooking among the country’s culinary influences and lists kasiri among its drinks.
To make kasiri, the roots are grated, mixed with water and pressed in a basketwork press to draw out the juice, which is then left to ferment. According to Wikipedia, in Suriname and Brazil the roots may also be chewed and spat out, so that an enzyme in saliva turns their starch into sugars and starts the fermentation.
Baskets, presses and syrup
The same cassava serves both kitchen and celebration. The Lam Museum holds a square basket sifter, loosely woven of palm fibre on a wooden frame, from Pikin Saron, a Kalina village in north-central Suriname. In everyday use, grated and pressed cassava is dried and sifted through such baskets to make flour for a flatbread cooked on a large griddle. The museum notes that the same baskets can serve as a sieve when making kasiri, with the grated cassava pressed in the basket to extract the liquid for fermenting.
Wikipedia adds that the pressed juice can also be boiled down into kasripo, or cassareep, a dark, thick syrup used for flavouring.
A Kalina tradition
The Kalina, as they call themselves, also known as Carib, live in villages along the rivers and coasts of Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and Brazil, with about 3,000 people in Suriname. A large share of Suriname’s Kalina live in Para District, often in villages shared with Lokono communities; their main settlements include Bernharddorp, Galibi, Powakka and Bigi Ston.
Both Wikipedia and the Lam Museum describe kasiri as an important part of traditional Kalina celebrations, and the museum adds that it is often offered to visitors as a sign of hospitality.
A family of cassava beers
Kasiri belongs to a wide family of Indigenous cassava drinks in South America. A 2021 review in the journal Food Science and Technology describes caxiri, made by the Juruna, or Yudjá, people of Brazil: the batch ferments in barrels for one to two days, its strength changes as it is kept, and it is linked to sacred rituals, parties and shared work such as clearing land or tending fields.
In Emblem World, kasiri sits in the Suriname drink collection, where people discover and rate local food, drink and music.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Kasiri
- Wikipedia: Kalina people
- Wikipedia: Culture of Suriname (Cuisine)
- Timothy S. Y. Lam Museum of Anthropology, Wake Forest University: Kalina Basket Sifter (1 August 2022)
- Food Science and Technology (SciELO): Ancestral fermented indigenous beverages from South America made from cassava (Sandoval-Cañas et al., 2021)
Checked by Emblem editorial on 9 October 2026.