Pulque

Pulque is the fermented sap of the maguey, and the oldest alcoholic drink in Mexico — it predates the arrival of distillation by well over a thousand years and appears in the pre-Hispanic codices as a ritual drink. It is made by hollowing out the heart of a mature agave, collecting the sweet sap that pools there (aguamiel), and letting wild yeasts and bacteria ferment it. Nothing is distilled and nothing is added. The result is unlike any other drink: milky white, viscous, slightly slippery, mildly sour, with a yeasty, vegetal aroma and a modest alcohol content of roughly four to six per cent, comparable to beer. It is often served plain — pulque natural — or blended with fruit, oats or nuts into curados, of which guava, pineapple, celery, oat and pine nut are the common ones. Its defining practical problem is that it is alive and does not keep. Fresh pulque continues to ferment and is at its best within a day or two, which is why it stayed a regional drink of the central highlands — Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, the State of Mexico, Puebla — sold in pulquerías rather than bottled and shipped. In the UK, fresh pulque is not available and cannot be. What you can buy from Mexican grocers and online Mexican shops is canned pulque, pasteurised for export: it is thinner and less sour than the fresh drink and purists are rude about it, but it gives an honest idea of the flavour. Canned curados, usually guava or pineapple, are the easier introduction.