Popo de Tuxtepec

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting cacao and rice
• •Heavy 4-quart pot for the cocolmeca extraction
• •Fine-mesh strainer (and ideally cheesecloth)
• •High-powered blender
• •Wooden molinillo (or stand mixer with whisk attachment as compromise)
• •Wide ceramic or clay bowl for whipping
• •Jícaras (dried calabash cups) for serving

Instructions

1. 1

   Extract the cocolmeca

   Place the broken cocolmeca pieces in a heavy pot with the 8 cups of cold water. Bring to a steady simmer over medium heat and cook, partially covered, for at least 90 minutes. The water will turn the color of weak tea and feel slightly slick between your fingers. That slipperiness is the saponin, the natural foaming agent in the root. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a wide bowl, pressing on the solids. Discard the spent root. Let the liquid cool to room temperature. Cocolmeca will not foam when warm. This is not negotiable.

   If your cocolmeca water does not feel slick after simmering, the root is old or weak. Add another 2 ounces and simmer for another 30 minutes. Without active saponins, you have flavored water and no foam.
2. 2

   Toast and grind the cacao

   Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium-low. Toast the raw cacao beans, shaking the pan, for 8 to 10 minutes until the shells crack and the kitchen smells like a chocolate market in Villa Alta. Cool until you can handle them, then rub the shells off between your palms. Discard the shells. Grind the toasted nibs in a high-powered blender with a few spoonfuls of the cooled cocolmeca water until you have a thick, dark paste. On a metate this would take an hour. The blender is one of the few shortcuts I will give you for this drink. Use it.

   If you cannot source raw cacao beans, use unsweetened cacao paste from Oaxaca or Tabasco. Do not use cocoa powder. Cocoa powder has been defatted and the popo will taste hollow.
3. 3

   Toast and soak the rice

   On the same comal, toast the rice over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring, until the grains turn from white to pale gold and smell nutty. Transfer to a bowl and cover with cool water. Add the cinnamon sticks broken in half. Soak for 30 minutes minimum. The water softens the starch and the cinnamon perfumes the grain at the same time.

4. 4

   Grind the rice and cinnamon

   Drain the rice, reserving the soaking liquid. Place the rice and cinnamon sticks in the blender with one cup of the cocolmeca water. Blend on high for two full minutes, scraping down as needed, until you have a smooth pale paste. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve set over a large clean bowl, pressing hard on the solids. Discard what does not pass through. The strained liquid should look like thin horchata.

5. 5

   Combine the elements

   Pour the remaining cocolmeca water into the bowl with the strained rice liquid. Stir in the cacao paste, the sugar, and the pinch of salt. Whisk by hand until the cacao paste dissolves completely and the liquid takes on its full color, dark coffee brown with a slight cinnamon haze. Taste it now. It should be sweet but not cloying, with the cinnamon and cacao both present and the rice giving it body. Adjust the sugar before you start whipping. Once the foam rises, you cannot fix the sweetness without breaking it down.

6. 6

   Whip the popo

   This is where popo is made or lost. Place the bowl on a folded towel so it does not slip. Take a wooden molinillo, set it between your palms, and roll it back and forth at full speed. Do not stop. The mixture will look unchanged for the first ten minutes. Then the surface will start to lighten. Then small bubbles. Then a soft foam. Keep going. After 30 to 40 minutes of steady work, the foam will stand in stiff peaks above the rim of the bowl, the color of milky cocoa, and the molinillo will leave deep tracks in the surface. That is popo. In Tuxtepec the women whip in shifts, switching arms, talking the whole time. They have been doing this for generations. La cocina no es decoracion, es trabajo.

   If you do not have a molinillo and cannot find one, a sturdy stand mixer with the whisk attachment on high will get you most of the way in 10 to 15 minutes. It is a compromise, not an upgrade. The hand-whipped foam has a texture the machine cannot quite match.
7. 7

   Serve in jícaras

   Place a small handful of crushed ice in the bottom of each jícara, the dried calabash gourds carved and painted in the markets of San Juan Bautista Tuxtepec and Huautla. Ladle the dark popo over the ice, filling the jícara about three-quarters full. Then spoon the standing foam on top so it crowns well above the rim. The foam should hold its shape on the way to the table. Drink immediately. Popo waits for nobody. Within 20 minutes the foam softens and the drink loses the visual signature that makes it a celebration drink. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Cocolmeca is the make-or-break ingredient. You will not find it in a supermarket. Look for it in herbalist stalls in Mexican markets, in shops that sell medicinal plants (it is also sold as a remedy for kidney complaints and joint pain), or order it dried online from suppliers in Veracruz or Oaxaca. Without cocolmeca, you cannot make popo. You can make a flavored cacao drink, but it will not foam, and the foam is the dish.
• •Use true Mexican canela de Ceilán, the soft bark cinnamon that crumbles between your fingers. Do not use cassia cinnamon, the hard rolled bark sold in most American grocery stores. Cassia is too sharp and too tannic. Canela de Ceilán is what gives popo its perfumed sweetness.
• •Sugar matters here. Use white granulated sugar, not piloncillo, not brown sugar. Piloncillo will tint the foam brown and you lose the visual contrast between the dark drink and the pale crown. The whole point of popo is the contrast.
• •If you cannot find jícaras, use small clay tazas or glass tumblers with wide mouths. The foam needs surface area to crown above the rim. A narrow glass collapses the visual impact.

Advance Preparation

• •The cocolmeca extraction can be done one day ahead and refrigerated. Bring it back to room temperature before using. Cold cocolmeca water foams less aggressively.
• •The toasted ground cacao paste keeps refrigerated for up to one week. The toasted rice can be soaked and ground the morning of, or the night before.
• •The whipping must happen within one hour of serving. Popo foam does not hold. Do every other step ahead, but pull the molinillo out only when the guests are at the table.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 255g)