The purple drink that has the heart of Peruvians

Several times a week, Claudia Berroa simmers purple Peruvian corn with pineapple skins to make chicha morada for her restaurant, Claudy’s Kitchen, in Riverdale in the Bronx. As the cobs rise in the bubbling liquid, she thinks of her mother, who used to boil the beverage over a wood fire in Lima. “I wanted to make it like my mom used to make it,” she said.

In Peru, chicha morada is as popular as sweet iced tea is in the American South,…