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.
Each of Mexico's dozens of indigenous groups seems
to have at least one fermented drink that it thinks of as its own. The following list just
scratches the surface.
- 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
- 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 Indians of ground-up, germinated and fermented corn kernels
- brandy: brandy
- caxtila: In the Sierra de Zongolica, Veracruz,
a rum prepared by the Nahua Indians
- 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 whisky 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
Indians, 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: especially from Jalisco, made from
fermented sap of a maguey-like agave
- 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