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Alcoholic drinks from Ceará, Brazil

Mocororó (Ceará cashew-apple wine)mocororó

Mocororó is a fermented cashew-apple drink of the Indigenous peoples of Ceará, central to the Tremembé Torém ritual. Sour cashew apples, including fallen ones that are already fermenting, are torn and squeezed by hand, strained, and the juice ferments on its own in bottles. Some makers leave the bottles in the sun for three days; others bury them.

Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks3 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedA traditional drink with no fixed amounts; each people and family has its own method.
Sour cashew apples, ripe from the tree and freshly fallenThe fallen fruit, already fermenting, acts as the starter[amaral2023]
Juice from the ripest fallen cashewsSome makers rinse the fruit with it instead of water[amaral2023]
Starterspontaneous (fallen, already fermenting cashew apples carry the microbes)

Total time across the recorded steps: 3 days

Start
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What changes: Ripe sour cashew apples are picked from the tree and gathered from the ground

Step 1 of 5
Gather ripe sour cashew apples, from the tree and from the ground
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Hanseniaspora
Pichia
Lactiplantibacillus
Leuconostoc

The Tremembé use the "sour" kind of cashew rather than the "sweet" one. Output: ripe and fallen cashew apples.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Mocororó is a fermented cashew-apple drink of the Indigenous peoples of Ceará, central to the Tremembé Torém ritual. Sour cashew apples, including fallen ones that are already fermenting, are torn and squeezed by hand, strained, and the juice ferments on its own in bottles. Some makers leave the bottles in the sun for three days; others bury them. Made in 5 steps over 3 days. The longest step, ferment the juice in bottles in the sun, takes 3 days (Amaral R.Q.G 2023). Hanseniaspora and Pichia yeasts, with Lactiplantibacillus, Leuconostoc, Weissella, Acetobacter and Gluconobacter bacteria, in a Benin laboratory study of spontaneous cashew apple fermentation does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3 daysReported[amaral2023]Ferment the juice in bottles in the sun

What makes this one different

Mocororó is made with fallen, already fermenting cashew apples as the starter and no industrial microorganism added. Feni, the cashew drink of Goa, is distilled after fermenting.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Buried-bottle mocororóThe bottles ferment underground instead of in the sun.

Safety

No safety limits specific to mocororó were found. A 2026 study of spontaneous cashew apple fermentation notes that uncontrolled spontaneous fermentations can produce mycotoxins, ethyl carbamate and biogenic amines.

Hazards the sources name: Mycotoxins, ethyl carbamate and biogenic amines, which can arise in any uncontrolled spontaneous fermentation (a general statement, not measured in mocororó).

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

An Old Tupi dictionary traces the name to Tupi, "what makes you snore". Among the Tremembé, the Torém ritual traditionally could not happen without mocororó, and the making is now taught in Indigenous schools in Ceará.

  1. [amaral2023] Amaral R.Q.G., Gonçalves M.M.R., Matias F.M. et al. 2023, Under the shadows of the cashew tree, mocororó of the Tremembé (narrative review), Nutrivisa - Revista de Nutrição e Vigilância em Saúde 10:e10876paper
  2. [s1] Wikipedia (pt), Mocororó (outline only)wiki
  3. [codjia2026] Codjia F.S., Collombel I., Chochois V. et al. 2026, Fermentation-driven valorization of cashew apple, combined influence of terroir, fruit phenotype and clarification level on microbial and biochemical composition, International Journal of Food Science 2026:5521006paper