Red maca: the purple root of the high Andean plateaus

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The plants that walk with the cycles, to live inside them fully.

In a maca field on the Junín plateau, above 4,000 metres, about one root in five comes out of the ground red. The skin runs from brick red to deep violet, the flesh is pinkish. This is red maca, the maca roja of Peruvian markets: the same plant as yellow and black, Lepidium meyenii, the same seed, another colour.

A palette in a single field

Maca is not sown by colour. A single batch of seed gives roots of every shade, and farmers tell far more than three apart: cream, yellow, pink, red, violet, grey, black. The trade groups them into three families. Across a harvest, there are roughly 60 to 70% yellow, 15 to 25% red and violet, 10 to 15% black.

Selling maca by colour means sorting the roots one by one after the harvest, on the Junín plateau. The red maca of the trade is a handful of purple roots set apart from the yellow heap, season after season.

Where the red comes from

Its colour comes from anthocyanins, the pigments that colour blueberries, cherries and red cabbage. Red cabbage is in fact a cousin: maca belongs to the crucifer family, along with cabbage, radish, watercress and mustard. Peruvian researchers who compared the colours of maca found in the red the highest content of anthocyanins and phytosterols of the three.

In Peruvian markets it is said to taste sweeter than the yellow. Maca powder is smooth, slightly sweet, with notes of caramel and malt; in warm oat milk, the red leaves a pinkish tint.

What the Andes read in it

Families on the plateau read the proportions of the field as a sign from the plant. What grows in abundance, the yellow, is eaten every day. What grows in smaller amounts, the red and the black, is kept for particular uses. In this reading of the three colours, red maca is tied to the feminine.

We keep this reading the way one keeps a family name, without making it say more than it says. Red maca is first of all a root that is eaten, dried in the Junín sun and then cooked in milk or as a porridge, like any maca of the Andes.

Red maca at the House

We offer it as a powder, in 100 g or 200 g, alongside the yellow. It comes from the high plateaus of Junín-Pasco, above 4,000 metres, and from a certified organic supply chain, inspected by a certification body. For those who love colour in the cup, and for whom yellow maca is already a habit.

The pink cup

The House recipe for red maca is a spiced latte:

1. A teaspoon of red maca (about 5 g), half a teaspoon to begin with.
2. Warm plant milk, coconut or oat, a touch of cacao.
3. Two or three freshly ground cardamom seeds, a little honey.
4. Two to three minutes at a simmer, then a turn of the whisk for the foam.

It is drunk in the morning or at midday. Like every maca, it is eaten cooked: Andean tradition dries the root in the sun for a long time, then boils it; the gelatinised form, gently cooked under pressure, is the modern version of that gesture.

In our Adaptogenic Blend, maca sits beside shatavari, Ayurveda's queen of a hundred roots, along with ashwagandha, mucuna and chaga. For the colour of every day, there is yellow maca; for the darkest, black maca.

Precautions

• Hormone-related conditions (history of hormone-dependent cancer, severe endometriosis) or ongoing hormone treatment: ask for medical advice before use.
• Thyroid disorder: the glucosinolates of crucifers can interfere with thyroid function. Prefer the cooked or gelatinised form, with medical advice.
• Pregnancy and breastfeeding: not enough data, ask a practitioner.
• Digestion: some discomfort is possible at first with raw powder; the gelatinised form is gentler.
• In the evening: taken late, maca can disturb the nights of sensitive people.

Sources

• G. F. Gonzales, "Ethnobiology and Ethnopharmacology of Lepidium meyenii (Maca), a Plant from the Peruvian Highlands", Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2012.
• David Winston and Steven Maimes, Adaptogens, 2007.
• Our supplier's sheet: origin, colours available, certification.

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