Nectar of the Gods

Thick. Viscous. Like snot. Slimy. Phlegm of an ancient Aztec ruler. When people drink pulque – the mildly alcoholic fermented sap of the maguey plant – it is always the texture that is remarked upon first. It’s like….nothing I’ve ever had before.

I’m in Mexico City or ‘el DF’, as it is most commonly called by locals, the ancient Atzec capital and one of the world’s largest metropolises. Everyone knows corona, has drunks tequila shots and mescal pops up on the radars of discerning drinkers. But, after a long day walking the streets of the historical centre of the Mexican capital, streets with their own rapid pulse, past organ grinders and quesadilla griddles tended by hunched señoras and slanted colonial buildings, it is to a soothing glass of pulque that I sit down.

Murals of revolutionary heroes Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata eyeball me as I raise the frothy ‘nectar of the gods’ to my lips. I am in La Burra Blanca, or in English, The White Donkey which is a pulqueria, a purveyor of pulque.

The White Donkey, like many pulquerias, offers natural pulque as well as a rotating range of flavored options known as curados which mask the natural flavour which can be challenging. On today’s list are fresa (strawberry), avena (oatmeal), apio (celery) and manzana (apple). I go for the apple.

After my first glass and with a slight fuzz overtaking me, I lean back in my chair, close my eyes and try to imagine the lives of the ancient Mexicans, their culture, their rituals. A kaleidoscope of images flash through my mind, regurgitations of what I have seen all across this incredible city; cacti, stencils of colourful skulls, mangy stray dogs, pyramids, roaming vendors everywhere.

A man selling three peso cigarettes snaps me back to the current reality. I refill my glass, take another gulp and look around at my fellow imbibers with a smile on my face. In no other country on earth can I do this.

So, when you visit Mexico City, fill your belly with as many tacos as you can handle, marvel at the incredible array of museums and let the mariachis serenade you at Plaza Garibaldi. But make sure you get to a pulqueria such as the White Donkey as well and do as the first Mexicans did when the thought of a conquistador such as Hernan Cortes arriving was as fanciful as passing a day without a tipple of the famed honey water, pulque. Try a curado and try a natural pulque as well. You won’t forget the experience. It’s pre-hispanic Mexico, in a glass.