Pulque: The First Victim of Fake News
At a small hacienda in the middle of Mexico’s Hidalgo state, the Familia Jimenez have been producing pulque for generations.
Their farm is a series of low-lying buildings, reached in about an hour on horseback from Santo Tomas. Goats, dogs and chicken roam the property. Maguey plants line their fields — which as a result also form a protective barrier against water run-off and soil erosion in this semi-arid region.
The magueys provide the crucial ingredient for their pulque. A sap, or aguamiel, is drawn from the plants only after they reach 15 years of maturity. This is then filtered and fermented using a semilla, or mature fermentation of ‘mother pulque’, in barrels in a shaded but airy shed. In a matter of days it is transformed into the thick, viscous, milky-white drink called pulque.
At a sheltered table on flattened earth, the Jimenez brothers share their home-made pulque with visitors. They talk about the history and cultural significance of the drink. They teach them the rituals of drinking pulque and the various health benefits it has.
But together they also lament the slow decline of the drink’s popularity and the dark forces at play behind its demise.
