[Aztlan] good pulque and bad

[Greg Sandor]

How does fresh "real" pulque compare to the canned variety?  My friend at 
our neighborhood Mexican market first brought some in for me a few years ago 
and we had drinks there, and I've since bought more (one last can remains in 
my kitchen now.)  I've had commercial microbrews and homemade beer, and 
there was a slight difference, but I have no frame of reference with pulque. 
As its pasteurized I haven't had to "cut" it with anything (let alone tuna!? 
or Fanta).

Regards,

Greg

(614) 517-7204
greg at gregsandor.com
http://www.gregsandor.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Diehl, Richard" <rdiehl at as.ua.edu>
To: <aztlan at lists.famsi.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 2:48 PM
Subject: [Aztlan] good pulque and bad


> First, let me thank everyone for the crash course on squash. We are off
> to Mexico for a month on Saturday and I may do some informal ethnography
> on the subject whenever I get the opportunity.
>
> Curado de Fanta?? Yuck! I lived at the Hacienda Metepec in the
> Teotihuacan valley for three months in 1962 when it still was a
> commercial pulque producer for the Mexico City market and I never heard
> of such an abomination. Curado de tuna, curado de apio, yes. I once
> tangled with some curado de apio that made it impossible for me to stand
> even the sight of celery for a year. As far as the poor deprived
> Yucatecos go, I have always assumed their Toltec conquerors simply
> failed to civilize the backward Maya as completely as they should have.
> That, admittedly, is the view of an archaeologist who has a
> Chilango-centric view of things.
>
> With regards to Totonacs and Tajin, I am mildly persuaded by Jeff
> Wilkerson's arguments that the Tajineros were Huastec-speakers during
> the Classic/ Epi-classic periods but I believe the case is far from
> proven. I certainly do not command the linguistic data. In any case
> there were Totonac-speakers living high enough in the highlands to be
> familiar with pulque.
>
> I was not aware of the tequila-like licor de henequen in Yucatan. Pulque
> is not a precursor of tequila; the plants and the technology are
> different. While both plants were available in pre-Columbian times, the
> distilling technology is Old World. As an interesting side bar, I know a
> farmer/businessman in Ajacuba, Hidalgo, who is experimenting with
> growing what will hopefully be tequila- producing agaves. He has given
> up on maize production because NAFTA and the massive imports of US maize
> into Mexico have made it completely unprofitable. US farmers are so much
> more efficient that small Mexican landholders that he cannot even
> recover the costs of production on the Mexican market. That may change
> with the new bio-fuel craze. In any case, it will be interesting to see
> how his experiment turns out. There is a booming world-wide market for
> tequila. (I can hear Sandy Noble saying "But, of course!"
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Aztlan mailing list
> Aztlan at lists.famsi.org
> http://www.famsi.org/mailman/listinfo/aztlan
>