Eric Demay

If you cut an unflowered stem of a Maguey plant, take its honey tasting sap—el agua miel—and ferment it for a week or two, you’ll get a load of bubbly viscous milky-white lightly alcoholic liquid, i.e. pulque. You can drink it straight (blanco) or flavored (curado) which often includes guava, piña, coconut, celery (!) or oats (!!). Loco, I know. (By the way, if you take the same plant, cook/smoke and ferment its heart, you’ll get mescal. Not in the same order of alcoholic refreshments though.)

On top of its dainty methods of confection and short shelf life, pulque is also only served in dedicated watering-holes, aptly named pulquerias—rustic places with tired men and loud jukeboxes. But like all things odd and forgotten, hipsters seem to be all over them though. The crowd at the pulqueria we visited was mostly comprised of young urbanites, stopping after work/school, in for a few liters of refreshing slimy maguey juice.

Wondering about the peculiar interior decoration, this is clipped directly from wikipedia:

“Diego Rivera once said that one of the most important manifestations of Mexican painting was the murals that decorated the facades and interiors of pulquerías.”

So that explains it. Notice also the maguey plants on the exterior facade (very first pic). Below: Jukebox in the back, bags of oats on the counter. The buckets under the bar hold the different curado flavors which they ladle out in to your glass.

Interestingly, there’s quite a history to the drink, starting with humble mythological beginnings as goddess Mayahuel’s blood. It quickly became the religious and ceremonial drink, ritually consumed by priests and the elite of pre-colombian Mexico. Then released to the masses during the colonial period, it proved even too popular, the public drunkeness became somewhat problematic and authorities ended regulating and highly taxing its consumption. And though it regained popularity after the independence and throughout the 19th century, it lost the race to beer in the 20th, and now only counts as 10% of all alcoholic beverages consumed in Mexico today. Quite a shame for such an iconic cultural concoction, considering its roots and the necessity of cool drinks on hot summer days.

Hygiene freaks need not apply. This place even had a urinal right at the front door. Practical!