Destination
Puerto Vallarta
The story
Tejate is the drink Oaxacan grandmothers have been making since before the Spanish arrived: a cold, unsweetened beverage of toasted corn, roasted cacao beans, ground mamey seed and a specific perfumed flower called rosita de cacao, all pounded together into a paste and thinned with cold water. What arrives in the cup is not a drink so much as a two-layer suspension — a milky pale-brown liquid at the bottom, and a thick, buttery-yellow foam floating on top that looks like whipped cream but tastes of cacao, corn and something wildly floral you cannot place. Served from big earthenware jícaras (gourds) at every Oaxacan mercado — Sánchez Pascuas, Benito Juárez, and every village Sunday tianguis in the Central Valleys — poured into small cups with a plastic straw so you drink through the foam.
Method
Warm a dry heavy pan over medium heat. Toast the dried corn 6 to 8 minutes, stirring, until fragrant and just golden. Cool.
In the same pan, toast the cacao beans 4 to 5 minutes until they crackle and smell strongly of cocoa. Cool. Rub off the papery husks with your fingers.
Toast the pixtle 3 minutes until fragrant. This step is essential — untoasted pixtle tastes bitter. Cool.
In a high-speed blender or grain mill, grind the toasted corn to a fine powder. Empty into a bowl. Grind the cacao beans to a smooth paste. Add to the corn. Grind the pixtle to a paste with the rosita de cacao (or orange blossom water and cinnamon). Combine everything with the salt (and sugar if using) in a large bowl. This is your tejate base paste.
Cover the paste and chill 30 minutes. The paste should be firm and slightly oily.
Working in batches: place a quarter of the paste in a wide shallow bowl. Add 250ml of cold water. Whisk vigorously with your hand (or a large balloon whisk) for 5 to 8 minutes, adding another 500ml of water slowly as you whisk. A thick pale-yellow foam should start rising on top of a milky liquid.
Pour the whisked mixture into a large pitcher or bowl. Repeat with the remaining paste and 2.25 litres of water. Combine everything in the pitcher.
Fill glasses two-thirds with tejate liquid, then top with a generous spoon of the foam floating on top. Add ice. Serve with a straw so drinkers pull the foam and liquid together. Offer syrup on the side for those who want it sweetened — traditional Oaxaca tejate is served unsweetened, but many drinkers add a spoon of piloncillo syrup.
Tips
- Pixtle is the ingredient that makes tejate tejate. Mamey seed is not optional — its high fat content is what creates the foam. Any Latino grocer sells it dried; if you're travelling through Oaxaca, buy a kilo from the Sánchez Pascuas market.
- Rosita de cacao is the perfume. This specific flower — the flower of the pochote or funeral tree — is what gives tejate its unmistakable perfume. Outside Oaxaca it's hard to find; orange-blossom water plus cinnamon is the best substitute.
- Toast everything. Untoasted corn tastes raw; untoasted pixtle tastes bitter; untoasted cacao tastes vegetal. All three components need to be lightly toasted before grinding.
- The whisk is the key to the foam. A metate is the traditional tool; a strong hand with a balloon whisk in a wide bowl is the home substitute. Whisking for 5 to 8 minutes releases the oils and builds the foam.
- Traditional tejate is unsweetened. Modern Oaxacan tejaterías offer sugar on the side and many drinkers sweeten. If you're serving a first-time drinker, offer both options — but taste it first without sugar; the natural toasted-corn sweetness is the point.
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