We're Gastronomads because: The only way to enjoy the world's greatest foods and drinks is to travel. And this is especially true of pulque. If you want to drink good pulque, you have to go to Mexico. It's literally unavailable everywhere else. There's nothing more Mexican than pulque.
Pulque is a milky-white alcoholic beverage made from the fermented sap of the agave plant. It can taste sour or sweet, viscous or watery and flat or fizzy, all depending on the agave used, length of fermentation and flavorings, if any, added by the curator.
Pulque is a delicate, fermented drink with a very short shelf life. And transporting pulque ruins it, so good pulque can't be transported. (In recent years, some makers have figured out how to sell it canned or bottled, but the stuff is nowhere near as good as fresh.)
Where pulque comes from
Only a few agave species are good for making pulque. In Oaxaca, the agaves are called pulqueros. The plants grow for 12 years, give or take a few, depending on the species. When their lifespan is almost done, they shoot a tall seeding stalk out of the top of the plant called quiote. Pulque growers chop this off from the very bottom of the plant, leaving a cylindrical hole in the middle or heart of the plant, called a cajete, which naturally fills with watery sap, called aguamiel (honey water).
This sweet and delicious liquid starts to ferment immediately, because of the yeast and bacteria naturally present on the plant and in the air — and because of the sugar content of the liquid. Pulque makers remove the aguamiel, then allow the fermentation to continue in tanks, clay ceramic vessels or barrels. Aguamiel is typically harvested twice a day, at dawn and dusk. They extract the aguamiel using a jicara (a bowl made from a round gourd) or, when the cajete gets deep, by using a long dried gourd called an acocote, which they use for siphoning.
The person who collects and manages the aguamiel, called a tlachiquero, has to be careful to fully cover and seal the top with rocks and agave leaves (which are very sturdy) because rodents and bugs love aguamiel as much as people do. Some agave plants produce up to 15 pints of aguamiel per day until the plant dies months later (usually 3 to 4 months depending on the species of the agave). After removing the aguamiel each time, the tlachiquero needs to reach into the hole and scrape the sides to keep the plant producing.
It takes one to a few days for pulque to ferment depending on the climate, achieving between 3 and 7 percent alcohol (typically 5 or 6 percent, roughly similar in alcohol content to a standard beer). The ferment is often fortified using a standard "backslopping" method of adding already fermented pulque to the freshly harvested aguamiel.
Pulque sellers add flavors, like fruit juice or nuts. And oftentimes it's sold plain (natural) with nothing added, which is our favorite. In fact, the addition of flavorings is the only part that's "made." Plain pulque is just the sap that's been allowed to ferment.
A brief history of pulque
The origin of pulque consumption is unknown, but goes back at least 3,000 years, based on archeological evidence. This is different from Mexico's other agave drink, mezcal (including tequila), which originated after the Spanish arrived.
Various Mexican indigenous cultures have pulque origin stories, and they're mostly related to human origin stories and they're all highly complex and involved. Most of these stories involve "Mayahuel," who is depicted as either a goddess or a mortal woman. In the stories where "Mayahuel" is a goddess, the aguamiel is said to be her blood.
The Mexica (the Aztecs who ruled parts of Mexico from what is now Mexico City) had strict rules for pulque consumption. It was used by elites for ceremonies, by pregnant and lactating women for nutrition and the elderly, who were allowed to get drunk as long as they didn't do it in public. Other groups had their own restrictions. But because pulque was sacred (and represented the connection between the human, divine and natural worlds) it was almost never consumed recreationally.
Most restrictions were lifted under Spanish rule. Pulque bars, called pulquerias, became ubiquitous and developed their own unique culture. Pulque became highly and almost exclusively recreational.
In the late 16th Century, Jesuits bought land around Mexico City and started growing and making pulque on an industrial level. When the Jesuits were expelled from Mexico in 1767, their operations were taken over by locals or by the Spanish crown.
When late nineteenth Century trains connected rural agave-growing areas (mostly Hidalgo and Tlaxcala) to the major cities, the pulque flowed like wine. Pulque making haciendas became rich, like oil barons. Pulque was Mexico's top drink and one of its biggest agricultural products, some calling it "white gold."
By the turn of the 20th Century, there were more than 1,000 pulque bars, called pulquerias, in Mexico City alone. Even small towns had pulquerias, and pulque was the main alcohol drink of the Mexico people. But this changed when European immigrants started mass-producing and mass-marketing beer during the 20th Century. Some Mexican leaders encouraged beer over mezcal because it was more sanitary, modern and easier to tax.
The new world of pulque
During the 19th and early 20th Centuries, pulque was associated with drunkenness, criminality and antisocial behavior. Even today, many pulquerias are places where regulars get completely drunk.
Side by side with the traditional pulque culture and old pulquerias, the drink is currently becoming popular with young, urban hipsters, and its popularity is growing.
We've sampled pulque in Mexico City, Yucatan and Oaxaca. And the best we've tried is in the Oaxaca valley. The multi-generational families ferment and sell pulque in the same place. These are typically small producers who have just a few agave pulqueros producing at a time, which they visit at dawn and at dusk to collect the aguamiel and they store in red clay ceramic vessels. They neither transport it after fermentation nor over-ferment it, and the quality of both aguamiel and the pulque is very high.
Exploring the world of pulque and mezcal in Oaxaca is perhaps one of the most profound foodie experiences we offer in this part of the world, and something we are personally passionate about.
Drinking "white gold" in a pulqueria typically visited only by locals in a little village surrounded by agave fields is incredibly beautiful and poignant. Drinking freshly harvested aguamiel from a jicara handed to you directly from the tlachiquero in the middle of agave fields as the sun goes down behind the Oxacan mountains is a life-changing experience. It’s a reminder of the simple pleasures that make life beautiful and joyful.
If you want to try the world's most amazing drinks and foods, you have to travel. And if you want to try good pulque, you have to travel to Mexico. But if you want to drink pulque in the presence of Mayahuel herself in the Oaxaca Valley, you really should join us on The Oaxaca Gastronomad Experience.
