Page "Argentine cuisine" Paragraph 44

Other widely consumed spirits are aguardiente ( firewater ) made from sugar cane, known as caña quemada (" burnt cane ") or, simply, ' caña ' (" cane ").

A folkloric note about caña quemada: until June 21 it is traditional to drink caña quemada with ruda macho ( a variant of common rue ), it is supposed that this mixture prevents the flu and other illnesses.

Caña competes, mainly in rural areas, with gin (" ginebra "— as in the Dutch kind of gin.