Pulque is for kids
It was a beautiful winter evening when we walked by a restaurant bar called Las Gringas in Tequisquiapan. “Oh, they have pulque. What is pulque anyways?”
And then “Let’s go in.”
Besides knowing it’s an agave based, meso-american beverage that had road signs all over the place when driving in the country, we didn’t know much. At that point we thought many things about pulque… it’ll taste sharp, it’s alcoholic, it won’t be at all like tequila.
The bar was sparse, but the bartender was friendly and talkative. Megan, my amazing personal interpreter, asked him more about the beverage as he served us a 2oz sample of the natural flavor. It was lightly effervescent and reminiscent of a sweet kombucha. He rattled off the 15 or so flavors they had of it. They made it in-house, it’s non-alcoholic (more on this later), they usually drink it in the morning because it ferments overnight, and kids sometimes drink it 3 times a day. That explains the vast amount of sickly sweet sodas and other drinks in Mexican culture. Oh, and also, this place has a full restaurant if we want to eat there. Always an upsell.
We opted for a pineapple one and a Mazapan one… those peanut flavored candies. And we decided to get it to-go for walking Gus back home and relaxing there. The bartender started right away by popping a few Mazapan candies in the blender along with the pulque. I assumed it was a “flavor,” not blended candies, so I was already chuckling when he pulled out two massive styrofoam buckets to put the mixtures in and had to laugh out loud at that point. Yes, they sell it by the liter. Seems it’s possible to get a 1/2 liter, but by that time it made us toooo happy to fit in a bit with the over-the-top nature of it all.
And then he was off blending frozen pineapple and making the second one. Parting with 180 pesos and the bar, we walked into the sunset, happy with both flavors, and feeling great… and after 1/2 a liter, a bit tipsy. Was it the bubbles?
Ok, so I did a little research. It is definitely alcoholic as you’d expect from a fermented beverage - to the tune of 4.5-12% alcohol. That’s beer territory and beyond. And kids drink this 3 times a day??? Oh, Mexico. It’s no wonder they “don’t drink much” here if they pretend their drinks aren’t alcoholic.
A little more about the drink if I can remember my internet sources correctly… it’s made from a different variety of agave plant than tequila and mescal and they slice the heart of mature plants to drain the sap over many months. It ferments for only a few days before it goes bad, which is why canning or bottling or expiring doesn’t work well and it has stayed local. It also has its own meso-american diety with the best part of that being that she apparently has 400 breasts. No wonder it’s a kids drink. It also has vitamins C, B, D, and E, and amino acids and minerals. There is a saying that pulque “is only a bit shy of being meat.” It’s definitely a filling frothy liter of “meat” at that.
We can also attest that it doesn’t last long because the portion we couldn’t drink the night before was pretty pungent the next morning in the fridge. Maybe we will just get a 1/2 liter next time.
