Pulque

'Water from the green plants…'

Codex made by Tlacuilos tell the importance of maguey in pre-Hispanic cultures. This natural wonder produced diverse necessary elements for living such as food, dress, roof, paper and it also cured and gave pleasure.

Pulque is also known as follows: Meti in Nahua, tacamba in Purepecha and guada in Otomi languages. The nobles were only one who knew the magueys, mezcals or agaves. The most precious one was the kind which had necutli which is the sap or juice, known as aguamiel, which is fermented to get octli a ritual intoxicating drink.

It was the drink of the wise ones, priests and warriors.

Old people over 50 and sick people drank it, or women after parturition. According to the Florentine codex, pulque was drank in special celebrations such as the harvest collection, ceremonies for making rain fall, marriages, births, burials and honor parties for some gods.

A bark called ocpatli was added to pulque, which made it more intoxicating, so Spaniards prohibited this action. They also restricted the use of pulque and from being the wine of gods it became a popular drink. Its original name changed for pulque (from Nahuatl poliuhqui, spoiled) for being unable to differentiate aguamiel from the drink which had been through a fermentation process.

There is a huge variety of pulques and its elaboration varies according to the cultural tradition of the place where it is drank.

White pulque is the base, seeds, vegetable, fruit, cereals and brown sugar are added to it. Nowadays there are even bottled soft drinks.