Nicaraguan folk music fills the air at the House of the Mejías Godoy, a nightspot in Managua, the sprawling capital of Nicaragua. The plates of steaming food served there — beans and rice, plantains and chunks of tasty meat — are also 100 percent Nicaraguan.

But the Nicaraguan authenticity comes to an end when it comes to quenching one’s thirst. Cuba’s mojito, with its crushed lime and mint leaves, is on the drinks menu. The margarita, Mexico’s way of showing off what tequila can do, is available as well. The bloody mary and Tom Collins are offered from the colossus to the north.

But Nicaragua, alas, has no cocktail to call its own. Despite a top-quality domestic rum, the bartenders borrow from others when mixing it. They add Coca-Cola and call the resulting drink a Nica libre, which everyone knows is really just a Cuba libre knockoff. They add soda water or ice, which does little to make the resulting drink shout “Nicaragua!”

But the country, which many still associate with the guerrilla war that tore the place apart in the 1980’s, is eager to stand on its own two feet again. A United States trade embargo that ended in 1990 leveled the country’s economy, but exports are now growing faster in Nicaragua than anywhere else in Central America. More and more visitors are arriving to climb the volcanoes and navigate the island-filled lakes.

Soon those tourists may be able to sidle up to a bar on a sweltering evening and order a uniquely Nicaraguan trago, which translates as a drink or swallow or swig.

“We want something authentic, something that goes down your throat and tastes Nicaraguan,” said René Hauser, the owner of a popular French restaurant in Managua and one of the judges in a competition to find an official national cocktail.

The winning drink will not be the "Nica rumba" or the "Experanza" or the "Fantasía del lago", all of which were also-rans in the contest, which wound up Tuesday.

Judged on their taste and appearance, the "Erupsión pinolera", the "Nicarao" and the "Monbacho en las rochas" did not make the cut either.

After sipping the numerous offerings, the judges have opted for a fruity concoction that they called "el macuá", after a tropical bird found in this part of the world. The drink is one part white rum, one part guava juice, with a half-portion of lemon juice and some sugar and ice.

If all goes according to plan, "el macuá" will soon be known worldwide as Nicaragua’s national thirst quencher, as closely tied to this country as the caipirinha is to Brazil and the pisco sour to Peru.

Judges described this yellowish drink as strong, fruity and sweet. It was invented by Dr. Edmundo Miranda, 67, a paediatrician from the city of Granada on Lake Nicaragua. He said his wife, daughter and guava-loving son-in-law had helped him perfect the formula.

One of the requirements was that the drink be appropriate for Nicaragua’s steaming climate. “We wanted something refreshing, that cools you in the heat,” Mr. Hauser said. “We didn’t want a drink that was too filling. You can have two or three mojitos and feel good.”

Not surprisingly, given that Flor de Caña, Nicaragua’s rum company, was a sponsor, all entries had to be rum based. But other than that, the sky was the limit. Many of the drinks capitalized on Nicaragua’s array of tropical fruits, with banana, coconut, pineapple, melons and tamarind all showing up in the candidate drinks. One contestant that raised eyebrows exploited Nicaragua’s coffee beans by mixing them with rum.

“Some of them were quite interesting,” said Jurg Benz, who works for a Swedish development agency and was invited as a judge to provide a foreigner’s perspective. “Others were too close to drinks I’d tried before.”

That certainly cannot be said for the drinks that relied on Nicaragua’s more exotic agricultural offerings, like the pitaya, known as the dragon fruit, which grows on a cactus. Then there is the sapodilla, which is about the size of a baseball and has a yellowish pulp and a red rind. The jocote, which is eaten unripe or ripe, also appeared, as did the mamoncillo, which has a juice that Nicaraguans use to cure stomach aches.

One of those sipping the finalists was Jean-Pierre Lafosse, the French ambassador to Nicaragua, who cannot imagine a country without a national drink. He said his country had three: Champagne; pastis, an aperitif that includes anis, nutmeg, sugar and other ingredients; and kir, which combines white wine and crème de cassis.

“It’s part of the identity of a country,” he said. “Nicaragua needs a new identity that doesn’t have anything to do with revolution. This is a chance.”

On top of that, Mr. Lafosse saw the open invitation that was offered to Nicaraguans to put their best drink forward as a model for the politicians now vying for the presidency in an increasingly ugly campaign that winds up on Nov. 5.

“It was a democratic competition, where the best drink wins,” he said.