Market Stand · Pre-Hispanic Corn Drink
Tejate
Photo: Pequeño mar / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
A thick foam floats on top of tejate thanks to cacao fat and ground mamey seed, and vendors ladle the drink from a large clay bowl without stirring the foam back in, since that foam is considered the best part.
Toasted corn, cacao, rosita de cacao flowers, and mamey seed are ground together and mixed with water into a thick, foamy, faintly nutty drink served cold in a painted gourd bowl. Market stands run mostly by women in Oaxaca's central valley sell it as a refreshing, filling drink on hot afternoons.
Why it's made this way: Tejate's ingredients and preparation trace directly back to pre-Hispanic Zapotec and Mixtec drink-making, and it's still made almost exactly the same way in Oaxaca today.
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