🥃 Pulque

Pulque is a traditional Mexican low-alcohol drink made from fermented agave sap, which is called aguamiel. It is milky white, somewhat viscous and slightly sour, usually 4–7% ABV. It is one of the oldest drinks of the Americas, not a modern trend. Pulque is not a distillate and so does not belong to spirits such as tequila or mezcal. It is made and drunk in central Mexico.

How it is made. The sweet sap is collected from the heart of a mature plant called maguey. The collectors, the tlachiqueros, draw it out with a long gourd tube. The liquid ferments spontaneously, with yeasts and bacteria from the plant, and is ready within a few days. It is hard to preserve, so pulque is drunk fresh, in the first days after it is made, while fermentation is still going on.

History. A scientific article from 2016 links the drink to the Mesoamerican period: it had a ritual meaning, and after the conquest it became an everyday drink. At the end of the nineteenth century a railway “pulque train” carried it to the capital every day. In the twentieth century beer pushed the drink aside, but it is returning, and the pulquerías have remained places of meeting.

Relatives. The page on agave describes the distillates: tequila and mezcal are made from the roasted heart, not from fresh sap. The blue agave for tequila differs from the plants that give pulque.

Why this matters to you. The low strength and the sap do not make the drink harmless, and a fresh, non-sterile product spoils quickly. The WHO reminds us that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption.