I normally don’t drink a lot but when I do, I like to enjoy the experience. I want to embrace the sensations it gives me, starting from the bouquet, thru the attack taste and finish. Most importantly, I enjoy the way it makes me feel, Tequila is more of a high, euphoric experience as apposed to most other spirits.
Tequila is often related to the party drink, shooting it straight down at the end of the night, after drinking just about every other alcoholic substance that does not mix with it, get completely hammered and end up with this vague memory of what happened the night before, if your lucky. This is also usually connected with the hangover to end all hangovers. It’s also a very successful way of convincing punters never to drink tequila ever, ever again.

With the standards and controls that the Mexican industry has now put in place, from the initial growing through to the distillation and ageing processes, there is no reason for this to happen again.
Providing you are drinking a quality product, and as with anything, but I always have to remind myself, you do not abuse the spirit, or as they say in Mexico – El abuso en el consumo de bebidas alcholicas es nocivo para la salud!

So here I am in Mexico City, or Dey F-ey (District Federal) as the locals call it. It is around 7.30 in the morning and the joint is pumping and when I say pumping I mean noise pollution, air pollution, visual pollution, just about every kind of damn pollution you can find.
Well what do you expect in the biggest city in the world!

I’m standing on the street or calle and looking for a cab, Aztec pyramids behind, Colonial Palace in front, there are plenty of cabs, in fact there are thousands of them and most are VW beetles, why? Cause they make them here. I’m looking for a cab to take out of town. I heard about a place where they are making Pulque, it is about 35k’s out of town, out near Teotihuacan, the Aztec site for the temple of the Sun and the temple of the moon (these are the largest pyramid in Mexico). My mission to day is to drink some Pulque.
So my first challenge is to pick the right cab. There are plenty of stories of
Gringos jumping in any old cab and either never being seen again, or being robbed by the driver and his accomplice that you meet later, where they drive you around to different ATM’s and force you to withdraw money for them.

The crazy thing about it, is that in a city of over 25 million people, about 99% of the people you meet will be the friendliest most polite and correct people you could ever hope to meet. That leaves about 250,000 really bad dudes to deal with, so it pays to be selective. That said, lets get back to the story. So here I am heading North West out of the city past all the Carnitas and Taco stands and I am seeing this dry arid country, filled with Nopal cacti (the one with the Mickey Mouse ears) and fields of Maguey. There are hombres on horses wearing cowboy hats and I feel like an extra in El Marriachi. Its early March and summer is still 3 months away, but its already hot and dusty and we are about 2200m above sea level. There are snow-capped volcanoes in the distance but I cannot see them through the pollution.
We pull into this place called San Martin de las Pyramides and there is a Frieda Karlo look alike standing by this giant Maguey.

You may ask what is a Maguey? Well it’s a succulent plant that is related to the Lilly family, it is also known as Agave or Mezcal plant. All three are basically correct. But to relate it in the simplest terms, its similar to an Alovera plant, and there are over 500 types of the them filling the country side, and the backyards, and the front yards and just about any other place where there is a piece of dirt.


Now, this thing is big, and I mean 3.5 meters big, and behind it is all of its brothers and sisters and cousins and all the rest of the family running of into the distance. Frieda leads me thru this forest and there is a huge Maguey with its crown removed. It looks like a giant spider almost and as I walk over to look in the centre I have to step right in amongst the fat broad leaves spewing out around me. Looking in to the centre I see a something like a coconut with the top cut of and three quarters full of clear liquid. She grabs a cup and scoops up some of this divine juice/sap and hands it to me. I’m thinking is this a wise thing to do? This stuff has been sitting in here for god knows how long with all of Mexico’s dust and dirt blowing in it, what am I going to catch let alone what it will do to me. So here I am macho man, don’t want to look like a wimp, “Oh! But I might catch leprosy or some thing!”

Well! Was it worth it? Yes it was!
Man that stuff tasted like nectar of the gods.

It was sweet and clear and fresh and clean, like watermelon juice, but with an Aloe flavour, incredible.

This is the raw material to make Pulque.
They take this sap and ferment it for one day to make the low alcoholic beverage, Pulque is about 3-6% alcohol, similar to beer.
Now this, as with most things in Mexico, is not like anything normal, this Low alcoholic beverage is! Well, it’s something that tastes like vomit. Yes! very subtle vomit, well that’s what it tasted like to me. I’ve tasted it on a few different occasions and many different ways, both flavoured and straight, to see if I could acquire a taste for it, guess what! This is going to take some serious dedication.

You have to remember that Pulque, this sacred drink, is what the priest used to give to their sacrifices, usually young boys or virgins, when they were standing on their pyramid shaped towers, some 500 or more years ago, in front of audiences of up to 100’s of thousands, and using a sharp stone, cut their heart’s out and offer it to their Idol while the heart was still beating. Wild shit!
So what is it going to do to me if I drink enough?

La Señora explained to me that this plant will last about three months and will produce about 120 litres a month, before its kaput, finito, dead.
She empties the reservoir and flicks out a little cutting blade similar to a broad spoon. She proceeds to cut a thin layer of flesh from the bowl like cup and explains that this is done daily and will keep the sap flowing, making it impossible for the plant to heal itself and making this plant bleed to death.

These plants not only produce “agua miel” or honey water to make Pulque, they are also used for their medicinal qualities, the skin to make paper, flower stems for beams for housing, fibres for clothes, thorns as sewing needles.
You could say that the Maguey was the 7/11 of plants in Mexico………………….(to be continued)