This is part 3.  To read part 2, Click Here. Pulque production is a long and delicate process.  The maguey plant needs twelve years of maturation before the sap, or aguamiel, can be extracted, but a good plant can produce for up to one year.  This aguamiel can be drunk straight, but it is alcoholic only after a fermentation process that can start in the plant itself.  This liquid is collect... more.

This is part 2.  To read part 1, click here. For the Indians of the central highlands of Mexico, the imbibing of pulque was done only by certain people, under certain conditions. It was a ritual drink, consumed during certain festivals, such as that of the goddess Mayahuel, and the god Mixcoatl. It was drunk by priests and sacrificial victims, to increase the priests' enthusiasm and to ease th... more.

The Beginning of the Extraordinary Part 2 Read part 1 of this article here Mexico achieved independence from Spain in 1821. But until the 1870s it was a  politically unstable country that experienced frequent changes in government, revolutions, and a disastrous war with the United States.  Marauding bands of soldiers and guerrillas extracted "revolutionary taxes" and "voluntary" contribu... more.

The Beginning of the Extraordinary Part 1 Tequila, and Mezcal, track their origins back at least 2000 years. About the first century A.D., one or more of the Native tribes that lived on what is at present central Mexico learned that the juice of the agave plant, if left in contact with fresh air, could ferment and become a white, to some degree alcoholic drink. News of this uncovering spread al... more.