ALCOHOLIC DRINKS
of the Mercado Area
Within Mexican mercados themselves local officials nearly everywhere do a good job keeping the premises safe and businesslike. This is not to say, however, that the same atmosphere extends to across the street. In fact, bars and less formal drinking holes often cluster on a mercado's perimeter.
A living maguey with aguamiel accumulating in its hollowed-out center; usually the hole is topped with a large round stone or something similar to keep insects out as the aguaiel slowly seeps in; copyright-free image courtesy of Armando Olivo Martín del Campo made available through Wikimedia Commons.Each of Mexico's dozens of indigenous groups seems to have at least one fermented drink that it thinks of as its own. Many of the most important ones are made from aguamiel which is the fermented sap accumulating in the bottom of a pit hollowed out in the center of a living maguey plant, as shown at the right. The name maguey is applied to several large agave species. The following list just scratches the surface of alcoholic drinks you might find around Mexico's market areas..
- acachú: in Zacapoaxtla, Puebla, a liquor of the capulín cherry
- aguamiel: in central Mexico, a mildly intoxicating drink made from sap of the maguey, of the agave family, as seen at the right
- aguardiente: aguardiente, brandy
- aguardiente de caña: rum
- anís: mixture of alcohol, water, and essence of anise
- bacamora or bacanora: a kind of Indian-made mescal
- batari: in Chihuahua, a tesgüino made by the Tarahumara people of ground-up, germinated and fermented corn kernels
- brandy: brandy
- caxtila: In the Sierra de Zongolica, Veracruz, a rum prepared by the Nahua people
- cerveza: beer
- charanda: name for various drinks, some made from fermenting agave sap, others from sugarcane juice
- charape: in Michoacán and northern Guerrero, variously prepared, most simply from fermenting pulque with water solution of unrefined brown sugar
- chicha: variously prepared, as from fermented pineapple, unrefined brown sugar, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, and ginger
- chichihualco: in Guerrero, made from fermented agave sap
- chorreado: in Mexico State, Morelos and Guerrero, a mixture of whiskey, milk, chocolate, sugar, and, sometimes, egg
- chumiate: in Mexico State, a name for fruit liqueurs
- colonche: in central Mexico, made from the fermentation of macerated cactus fruit and sugar
- comiteco: especially in Chiapas, a drink made from agave sap
- curado: name applied to too many kinds of drinks to specify
- damiana; in Sinaloa, a fermented infusion of the herb known as damiana, of the genus Turnera
- garapiña: same as chicha
- ginebra: gin
- habanero: in Tabasco, a local rum; in Yucatán, made from the tropical tree-fruit called nance
- huazamoteco: in Durango, alcohol diluted with water, with tequila
- kahlúa: a coffee-flavored liqueur
- mezcal: mescal, distilled from pulque (see below)
- mistela or mustela: in southern Mexico, various recipes made with a variety of fruits such as the nance, mango, and plum; typically the fruit is fermented with water and alcohol until hardened, then sealed and fermented for another year
- mosco or mosquio: a liquor based on oranges or orange peel
- nevado: in Puebla and Mexico State, fruit liquors
- nochotle: among the Mixtecs of central Mexico, a drink made by adding juice from the prickly-pear cactus, nopal cardón, to pulque
- podzol: in Tabasco, fermented, ground, sprouted corn kernels, flavored with salt and chili
- ponche: punch (ponche de fruta = fruit punch)
- posh: in Chiapas, a whiskey based on sugarcane juice
- pozol or pozole: in southeastern Mexico, drink from fermented corn paste flavored with salt or chili
- pulque: pulque -- in central Mexico, a mildly intoxicating drink made by fermenting the sap, or aguamiel, of the maguey agave
- resacado: a high-grade whiskey
- rompope: typically based on milk, almonds and egg yolk
- ron: rum
- sangría: sangria
- sotol: in Jalisco and Nayarit, a distilled drink using fermented sap of the desert yucca called sotol, of the genus Dasylirion
- sugiki: same as batari
- taberna: in Isthmus of Tehuantepec area, made by fermentation of juice from a local palm tree
- tecuí: in Mexico State, alcohol and fruit juice, especially juice of orange, limon, or pineapple
- tejuino: in western Mexico, among Huichol people, drink of fermented corn, with added alcohol
- tepache: fermented drink made from the of a variety of plants, especially sugarcane and pineapple, with brown sugar; sometimes pulque is added
- teporocha: in Mexico State, a mixture of alcohol and soda drink
- tequila: made from fermented sap of a maguey-like agave; a selection of brands is shown at the right
- tesgüino, tesgüín, or tejuino: in northern Mexico, a weakly alcoholic drink made from fermenting corn, or sometimes agave juice, and unrefined brown sugar
- torito: dozens of recipes; in Mexico State, it is often tequila or rum mixed with orange juice, vinegar, onion and chili pepper; in Guerrero, mescal cured with vinegar, green chili pepper, onion, tomato, and cheese; in Veracruz, rum with fruits, such as guava, mamey, limon and peanuts, mixed with condensed milk, regular milk, and ice
- tuba: drink from fermentation of juice from different kinds of palm, especially the coconut palm, often flavored with pineapple, limon, chili, etc.
- tuxca: same as mescal
- verdín: In southeastern Mexico, a liquor made from aromatic leaves of the tree called hoja santa, and fennel or anise
- vino: wine
- whisky or wiski: whiskey
- xanath: a vanilla-flavored liqueur
- xtabentún: an anise-flavored liqueur
- yolispa: in central Mexico, a drink made with whisky, honey and herbs
- zotol: in Chihuahua, the same as sotol
Label on a bottle of La Merced Pulque; copyright-free image courtesy of "YisusN" made available through Wikimedia Commons.
Collection of tequila brands; public domain image courtesy of "Photomag" made available through Wikimedia Commons.