From personal experience mauby is like marmite – you either love it or hate it. Over time I’ve grown to quite like it for more than one reason. The acquired bitter sweet taste of mauby can be refreshing and at the same time has amazing health benefits.
With spring just round the corner and planning ahead for longer brighter days, less winter layers exposing too much indulgence and a healthier year than the last two years, I decided to go looking for my bags of mauby bark which I brought back from Grenada and make my favourite mauby concoction.
Facts about mauby
Mauby is the tree bark from the mauby tree also called Colubrina elliptica which is used for a refreshing drink in the Caribbean but also has medicinal benefits such as:
- increasing stamina
- helping balance blood sugar levels in people with diabetes through its chemicals that increase insulin in the blood
- detoxing the body
- acting as a diuretic
- cooling you down on a hot day
- acting as anti-inflammatory to help alleviate the symptoms of asthma and arthritis. Its properties are said to even protect against degenerative diseases and chronic diseases like osteoarthritis and cancer.
- lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels which in turn lower the risk of heart attacks and stroke
- thinning the blood and breaking down blood clots through the enzyme bromelain
- improving your digestion and killing pathogens and parasite and cleaning your blood
- helping to relieve stress and anxiety
How to make a mauby drink
You traditionally boil mauby bark with spices such as cinnamon, cloves and star anise. Once boiled and cooled down you then strain it, dilute it with some water and sweeten it with sugar but to get the full benefit you can also drink it unsweetened and undiluted.
Ready to try it? Then watch my little video of how to make it:
Heart of Grenada 