Cacahuada Tabasqueña

Tabasco, especially the Chontalpa around Comalcalco, Cunduacan, and Jalpa de Mendez, is where this drink belongs. Cacahuada is not chocolate milk. It is not pozol. It is the white cacao pulp, the baba that clings to the fresh beans when the pod is opened, loosened into water and sweetened with piloncillo.

You make this during cacao harvest, when the pods are heavy and the pulp is alive with that sweet-acid smell of lychee, citrus, and wet earth. I learned it from women who worked quickly over split cacao pods, separating what would go to fermentation from what would become a cold jarro for the house. Nothing wasted. The pulp is the drink. Respect it.

If you cannot get fresh cacao pods, do not pretend with cocoa powder. Cocoa powder is roasted seed. This is fresh fruit pulp. Different ingredient, different state of the cacao's life. Ask at a mercado, a cacao farm, or a chocolate maker who buys whole pods. Si no conoces el mercado, no conoces la cocina.

Serve it cold in a clay jarro or glass pitcher, with the faint cloudiness that tells you the pulp was real. Cada estado, su propia cocina, and Tabasco's cacao speaks before it becomes chocolate.