I’m a proud pocha born and raised in greater East Los Angeles. Growing up, my exposure to Mexican beverages was reasonably limited to champurrado during the winter holidays and aguas frescas or bottles of Jarritos with carnitas tacos at Olvera Street.
When I reached drinking age, my world of thirst-quenching Mexican choices expanded to include alcoholic ones like tequila, mezcal, sotol, rompope, and of course, all those fizzy yellow lagers like Model, Pacifico, and Tecate.
Pulque was never part of my drinking vocabulary for a good reason.
I did not learn about the mysterious pre-Conquest “drink of the gods” until about four years ago when I started writing for this publication. I’d heard that one could only find pulque in Mexico, but where?
Until this past November, my only trips to Mexico had been to border cities like Tijuana and Juárez, Baja beach towns like Rosarito and San Felipe, the coast of Cozumel thanks to a cruise with my grandparents, and the occasional trip to el Mexico’s wine country in Valle de Guadalupe. I didn’t see any pulque in these parts of Mexico, but I also didn’t know to look for it, perhaps too busy drinking cold chelas and meaty red wine rather than seeking to expand my beverage horizons.