Qollqa (Inca state storehouse)
Qollqas (also called colcas) were fixed Inca state storehouses built in Andean networks. Their forms, locations and stored goods varied by site; Xauxa archaeology documents a large regional system.
Tunta (moraya, white chuño)
Tunta · white chuño · moraya · tunta
Potatoes frozen and thawed as for black chuño, then washed or soaked for a long time before drying, giving a pale highland tuber product with different bitterness and colour.
A washed cousin of black chuño
White chuño and tunta start from the same sequence as black chuño: the potatoes freeze through the night, thaw in the day and are pressed. The difference comes next, when the tubers are washed or soaked for a prolonged period before they are dried.
The catalogue groups tunta and moraya under white chuño. Both names appear in highland use for this pale, dried tuber product.
Sources for this section
What the washing changes
The long soaking preserves the tuber while also changing its bitterness, colour and composition. These changes are the reason white products deserve study on their own, separate from black chuño.
A washed tuber is not simply a drier black chuño. The washing removes or alters components that the frost and pressing leave in place, so the two products differ to the eye and to the palate.
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Related highland processing
Related sequences in the same highland families process oca into kaya. The catalogue lists kaya among these methods, but its own steps are not described on this page.
Together these methods show a pattern: freezing, thawing, pressing and soaking are combined in different orders to suit different tubers and different uses.
Sources for this section
What the record does not settle
The sources do not give soaking durations, water sources, drying conditions or yields. The steps above are the process as the catalogue describes it, not a tested home method, and no shelf life is claimed.
Sources for this section
History
White chuño and tunta are grouped with black chuño in Andean tuber processing. The added washing makes them a separate subject rather than a variant of the black product.
Ingredients
Scaling: source batch only
Potatoes (highland varieties)Choose tubers suited to the process; variety and local climate matter.
Amount not stated
Method
- Freeze the potatoes overnight in the cold highland air and thaw them by day, as for black chuño.
- Press or tread the thawed tubers to remove water.
- Wash or soak the pressed tubers for a prolonged period.
- Dry the washed tubers until they are firm and light.
Places
High Andes
Traditional preparation · Region evidenceTraditional highland Andean processing; the catalogue names no narrower locality.
Related
Equipment
Related in the family
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Sources
Frontiers in NutritionMethod · History
Andean tuber processing and nutrition (Frontiers in Nutrition)White chuño, tunta and moraya: freezing, prolonged washing or soaking and drying
Bitterness, colour and composition change with processing
Cited in: A washed cousin of black chuño; What the washing changes; Related highland processing; What the record does not settle
Smithsonian National Museum of the American IndianHistory
Preservation (NK360, Inka water)Andean potato reserves and their storage