Chef Lupita
Agua de Alfalfa
Ciudad de México's highland market agua fresca, fresh alfalfa blended with pineapple and lime until bright green, strained clean, and poured cold from the vitrolero.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Curado de Apio Tlaxcalteca
Created by
Tlaxcala's green pulque curado, blended with celery, hierbabuena, lime peel, pineapple, and plátano morado, then strained clean and served cold in tarros, no tequila, no shaker, just maguey.
Beverages
Mexican
Celebration
Outdoor Dining
15 min
Active Time
0 min cook•45 min total
Yield8 servings, about 2 liters
Tlaxcala's pulque corridor, from Nanacamilpa and Calpulalpan across the high maguey lands toward Huamantla, is where this curado belongs. Curado de apio is not a tequila cocktail trying to look Mexican. It is fresh pulque from the tinacal, softened with celery, limón mexicano, hierbabuena, a little pineapple, and plátano morado. The maguey stays in charge.
At the pulquerías and weekend ferias, the women behind the barra know the trick: blend only part of the pulque with the vegetables and fruit, then strain it clean before it meets the rest. Celery has threads. If you leave them, your guests chew their drink. No me vengas con atajos. The curado should be pale green, herbal, slightly sour, and alive from fermentation, not neon like cheap candy.
I learned this version near Nanacamilpa, where the talk starts with which maguey gave the aguamiel and which tlachiquero brought the pulque that morning. The apio makes it bright, the hierbabuena cools the edge, and the banana gives body without turning it into a licuado. Serve it cold in tarros or barro from Tlaxcala, outdoors if the afternoon is hot. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
Pulque is a pre-Columbian fermented drink made from aguamiel extracted from mature maguey pulquero; the tlachiquero scrapes the cajete and carries the fresh sap to the tinacal, where fermentation happens quickly and without distillation. Tlaxcala became one of the central plateau's great pulque zones during the hacienda era, and trains in the late 19th century carried barrels from Hidalgo and Tlaxcala toward Mexico City. In 2026, Mexico declared "Pulque de Tlaxcala" a protected geographical indication, naming municipalities including Nanacamilpa, Calpulalpan, Huamantla, Tlaxco, and Atltzayanca as part of the protected zone.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
fresh natural pulque from Tlaxcala
Quantity
2 liters
chilled
celery ribs with tender leaves
Quantity
150 grams
washed and chopped
fresh pineapple
Quantity
1/3 cup
diced
ripe plátano morado or ripe banana
Quantity
1/3 cup
diced
fresh hierbabuena leaves
Quantity
1/2 cup
loosely packed
limón mexicano peel
Quantity
1 strip
green part only, no white pith
fresh limón mexicano juice
Quantity
1 tablespoon
cane sugar
Quantity
80 to 100 grams
adjusted to the pulque's acidity
fine sea salt
Quantity
1 small pinch
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| fresh natural pulque from Tlaxcalachilled | 2 liters |
| celery ribs with tender leaveswashed and chopped | 150 grams |
| fresh pineapplediced | 1/3 cup |
| ripe plátano morado or ripe bananadiced | 1/3 cup |
| fresh hierbabuena leavesloosely packed | 1/2 cup |
| limón mexicano peelgreen part only, no white pith | 1 strip |
| fresh limón mexicano juice | 1 tablespoon |
| cane sugaradjusted to the pulque's acidity | 80 to 100 grams |
| fine sea salt | 1 small pinch |
Equipment Needed
- •High-powered blender
- •Fine-mesh strainer or manta de cielo
- •Large clay jarra or glass pitcher
- •Thick pulquería tarros or Tlaxcala barro cups
Instructions
- 1
Choose the pulque
Buy fresh natural pulque the morning you plan to serve. It should smell of maguey, bread dough, and clean lactic sourness, never vinegar, rot, or solvent. Keep it cold. Gently stir it with a wooden spoon before measuring because the body settles in the jarra. Measure 3 cups into the blender and keep the rest chilled in a large clay jarra or glass pitcher.
Pulque is alive. If it is already too sour to drink natural, do not hide it under celery and sugar. Bad pulque makes bad curado. Así se hace y punto. - 2
Prepare the green base
Wash the celery well, especially where dirt hides near the base. Use the tender leaves because they carry more flavor than the pale inner ribs. If the celery is thick and stringy, pull away the toughest threads with a small knife. Strip only the green peel from the limón mexicano. The white pith turns bitter and bitterness spreads fast in pulque.
- 3
Blend with part pulque
Add the 3 cups of pulque to the blender with the celery, hierbabuena, pineapple, plátano morado, 80 grams sugar, lime peel, lime juice, and salt. Blend on low for 10 seconds, then on high for 45 to 60 seconds, until the mixture turns pale green and smooth. The banana gives body. The pineapple rounds the sour edge. The apio and hierbabuena should still taste like the market, not like candy.
- 4
Strain it clean
Pour the blended mixture through a fine-mesh strainer or manta de cielo into a bowl. Press with a spoon, but do not force the thick pulp through. Rinse the strainer and strain again if you see celery threads. Curado de apio should drink clean. If your guests have to chew it, you got lazy. No me vengas con atajos.
Do not skip the second straining when the celery is fibrous. This is the difference between a pulquería curado and a green licuado with alcohol. - 5
Combine and chill
Stir the strained green base into the remaining chilled pulque. Taste it. If the pulque is very sour, add the remaining sugar a tablespoon at a time, stirring until dissolved. If it tastes flat, add a few drops more lime juice, not another whole lime. Refrigerate for 30 minutes so the flavors settle without dulling the hierbabuena.
- 6
Serve without ice
Serve cold in thick pulquería tarros or small barro cups from Tlaxcala. Stir gently before each pour because the curado settles. Do not put ice in the glass. For outdoor dining, nest the jarra in a bowl of ice instead. The color should be soft green, not neon. If someone wants green coloring, give them a soda and save the pulque for people who respect it.
Chef Tips
- •Fresh pulque is the recipe. Canned or bottled pulque is a compromise, not an upgrade. It will make a drink, but it will not have the same living body, lactic edge, or soft foam of pulque brought from a tinacal that morning.
- •Do not add chile serrano, tequila, mezcal, or salt on the rim to make this more Mexican. This is already Mexican. This is a 32-state cuisine, and Tlaxcala's pulque does not need a costume.
- •If the celery has no leaves, smells watery, or bends like old rubber, buy another bunch. The leaves give the curado its clean green flavor.
- •Do not use green food coloring. Some pulquerías do it because customers expect a louder color. Let them. In your kitchen, pale green is correct. The drink should taste like apio and maguey, not a children's party.
- •Fresh pulque contains alcohol and active fermentation. Keep it cold, serve it the same day, and do not serve unpasteurized pulque to pregnant people, immunocompromised people, or anyone avoiding alcohol.
Advance Preparation
- •Chill the pulque, jarra, and tarros at least 2 hours before serving. Cold vessels keep the drink clean without watering it down.
- •The celery, pineapple, banana, and hierbabuena can be washed and prepped up to 4 hours ahead, then held covered in the refrigerator.
- •Blend and strain the curado no more than 2 hours before serving. After that, the hierbabuena darkens and the fresh green edge fades.
- •Do not make this the night before unless the pulque is very young. Even then, it is better the day it is mixed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 265g)
Calories
170 calories
Total Fat
0 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
0 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
20 mg
Total Carbohydrates
35 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
30 g
Protein
1 g
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