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I love trying unique local drinks when I travel. Often, these are just different sodas I haven’t encountered elsewhere. But in Mexico, there’s a wide array of drinks made from local ingredients that go beyond any basic soda or juice. Some of these drinks even date back to the pre-Columbian era. One such drink is tepache, a fermented drink made from pineapple rinds.
What is Tepache?
Tepache is a Mexican drink traditionally made by fermenting pineapple rinds. Brown sugar or unrefined cane sugar, known as piloncillo, is also used for sweetness, often along with cinnamon. Some people also add chili powder or beer to it. Tepache is served cold.
Since the beverage is fermented for a few days, it can be slightly alcoholic. However, commercially produced tepache is non-alcoholic. These mass-produced tepaches are also made using pineapple pulp and juice rather than just skins.
The history of tepache dates back to pre-Columbian central Mexico, where the Nahua people first produced it from corn before the drink evolved to use pineapple.
The drink’s popularity has fluctuated over time, but it has recently seen a resurgence amid the growing popularity of kombucha.
Drinking Tepache in Oaxaca
La Cosecha Mercado Organico (Instagram) is a small marketplace lined with food and drink stalls in Oaxaca. We visited it as one of the stops on an excellent Culinary Backstreets Oaxacan food tour.
In addition to tepache, La Cosecha Mercado Organico also has vendors selling other local traditional drinks, including tejate, pulque, and pozontle. Since the market is one of the quieter ones in the city, it’s a good place to try new food and drinks without being overwhelmed by crowds.
For my first taste of tepache, I went to a vendor called “Hay! Pulque & Nieves,” which sells a variety of drinks and the local frozen treats called nieves.
Thanks to pineapple skin, brown sugar, and spices, the drink is brown.
It’s both tangy and sweet. Due to fermentation, it also has a slight fizz, like kombucha. I found it to be more pleasant than kombucha, though. I do really enjoy pineapple, so it was an interesting but pleasant drink to try.
Tepache is one of Mexico’s most unique drinks. If you see it, give it a shot!
