Bate de Chan Colimense

Colima makes bate with chan, and that is where you start: in a small Pacific state between the Volcan de Fuego and the coast, where the mercados still sell seed drinks that do not care about smoothie fashion. This is not a licuado. No milk, no banana, no blender full of nonsense. Toasted chan, water, piloncillo. Así se hace y punto.

I first drank bate in Colima city from a clay cup, cold enough to bead on the outside, handed to me by a woman who corrected my notebook before I even tasted it. The chan had to be toasted, she said. Not raw. The piloncillo syrup had to cool before mixing. And the drink had to be beaten, not stirred lazily, because the body and the froth are the point.

Chan is the ingredient that makes this Colima's drink. It behaves a little like chia, thickening in water, but the flavor is nuttier once it touches the comal. You grind it fine enough to give body and coarse enough to remind you it came from seed, not powder from a packet. Cada estado, su propia cocina, and Colima's kitchen knows how to make refreshment from almost nothing.

My mother did not make bate in Colonia Roma. She was jalisciense. But in her notebook she wrote one line after a trip west: "preguntar por chan, no chia." Ask for chan, not chia. She was right. Si no conoces el mercado, no conoces la cocina.