singani and spices and called it sucumbé, a name of possible African origin, and the oldest singani mixed drink known. Sometime in the 1800s railroad engineers from Britain and America began to lay down track in the Andes nations including Bolivia. A 19th century favorite back home in Britain was “gin on gin” or gin with alcoholic ginger beer. Unable to get either one in-country, British expatriates improvised with singani and whatever bubbly came to hand. The railroad term “shoofly” (perhaps from “short fly”) refers to a short length of track built as a temporary expedient to the main line and is slang for “workaround”. Singani and bubbly beverage was thus dubbed a “shoofly”. Being unpronounceable to locals it emerged as “chuflay”, which is still the favorite cocktail based on singani. Other traditional mixes are the “yungueño”, tumbo (banana passionfruit) cocktail, and “té con té”, which signifies "tea with trago", that is, hot tea with "trago" (an alcoholic drink), either singani or straight cane alcohol. This proto "mixed drink" was an essential part of the long trips in the mountains in unheated buses, and still has its fans even in the tropical parts of Bolivia. Singani is wildly popular at national festivals, most notably Saint John's Eve and the annual Virgen del Socavón carnival (Carnaval de Oruro). Singani is also the traditional drink at weddings, religious holidays, birthday parties, and other celebrations. A common pastime is to play “cacho”, a cup and dice game similar to yahtzee or generala, while drinking singani either as a penalty or reward depending on the players’ mood. References Further reading Canedo Daroca, Marcela (2008). Wines of Bolivia from the highest vineyards in the world. Fundación FAUTAPO Educación para el Desarollo. Sagarnaga, Ivan Blushe (2005). Diego Bigongiari. ed. South American Vineyards, Wineries and Wines. Austral Spectator. . Lougheed, Vivian and John Harris (2006). Bolivia. Walpole, MA; Hunter Publishing. External links Singani USA Wines of Tarija Bolivian cuisine Bolivian alcoholic drinks Tarija