Chicha is a fermented (alcoholic) or non-fermented beverage of Latin America, emerging from the Andes and Amazonia regions. In both the pre- and post-Spanish conquest periods, corn beer (chicha de jora) made from a variety of maize landraces has been the most common form of chicha. However, chicha is also made from a variety of other cultigens and wild plants, including, among others, quinoa (Chenopodium quinia), kañiwa (Chenopodium pallidicaule), peanut, manioc (also called yuca or cassava), palm fruit, rice, potato, oca (Oxalis tuberosa), and chañar (Geoffroea decorticans). There are many regional variations of chicha. In the Inca Empire, chicha had ceremonial and ritual uses.

The exact origin of the word chicha is debated. One belief is that the word chicha is of Taino origin and became a generic term used by the Spanish to define any and all fermented beverages brewed by indigenous peoples in the Americas. It is possible that one of the first uses of the term chicha was from a group of people who lived in Colombia and Panama, the Guna. However, according to the Real Academia Española and other authors, the word chicha comes from the Guna word chichab, or “chiab” which means maize. According to Don Luis G. Iza it comes from the Nahuatl word chichiatl, which means “fermented water”; the verb chicha meaning “to sour a drink“ and the noun atl meaning “water”. These etymologies are not mutually exclusive.

The Spanish idiom ni chicha ni limonada (neither chicha nor lemonade) means “neither one thing nor another” (roughly equivalent to the English “neither fish nor fowl”).

Chicha de jora is a corn beer prepared by germinating maize, extracting the malt sugars, boiling the wort, and fermenting it in large vessels, traditionally huge earthenware vats, for several days. The original Quechua name is aqa ~ aqha (Ayacucho vs. Cuzco-Bolivia varieties), and it is traditionally made and sold in chicherías, called also aqa wasi or aqha wasi (lit. “chicha house”).

Usually, the brewer makes chicha in large amounts and uses many of these clay vats to do so. These vats break down easily and can only be used a few times. The brewers can arrange their vessels in rows, with fires in the middle, to reduce heat loss.

The process for making chicha is essentially the same as the process for the production of malted barley beer. It is traditionally made with Jora corn, a type of malted corn from the Andes. The specific type or combination of corn used in the making of chicha de jora shows where it was made.^{[page needed]} Some add quinoa or other adjuncts to give it consistency; then it is boiled. During the boiling process, the chicha is stirred and aerated so as to prevent overboiling.^{[page needed]} Chancaca, a hard form of sugar (like sugar cane), helps with the fermentation process.

After the milling of the corn and the brewing of the drink, the chicha is then sieved. Traditionally, it is sieved through a large cloth. This is to separate the corn from the desired chicha.^{[page needed]}

In some cultures, instead of germinating the maize to release the starches therein, the maize is ground, moistened by saliva in the chicha maker's mouth, and formed into small balls, which are then flattened and laid out to dry. Naturally occurring ptyalin enzymes in the maker's saliva catalyses the breakdown of starch in the maize into maltose. This process of chewing grains or other starches was used in the production of alcoholic beverages in pre-modern cultures around the world, including, for example, sake in Japan. Chicha prepared in this manner is known as chicha de muko.