Non-Alcoholic Drinks

Two drinks deserve special consideration because they are so important to Mexico's indigenous people:

Back in the 60's when I was hitchhiking throughout Mexico, I often rode with truck drivers carrying large balls of masa ground at home by mamá or la señora, and neatly swaddled in white cloth. If we passed a good spring in the mountains, you could bet that we'd pause long enough to unwrap the masa, break off a small chunk, crumble it into a cup kept just for the purpose, add some cold spring-water, and then have pozol. Today pozol is mainly drunk by diehard traditionalists. Some pozoles are fermented and slightly alcoholic.

Of course, the multiplicity of mercado-area non-alcoholic drinks hardly ends with these two. Be sure to browse our list of non-alcoholic drinks.

Moreover, though it's rare to find people drinking alcoholic drinks in the mercado proper, it's very normal for establishments of all kinds of color to cluster along the mercado's perimeter offering alcoholic drinks. Even teetotalers might get a kick from viewing our list of alcoholic drinks.