Tejate

Tejate is a cold, non-alcoholic maize-and-cacao drink from the Central Valleys of Oaxaca, Mexico, made and sold mainly by Zapotec and Mixtec women and reaching back to pre-Hispanic times. Toasted criollo maize, fermented cacao beans, the ground pit of the mamey fruit (pixtle) and the fragrant flower rosita de cacao are ground to a paste and beaten by hand with water until cocoa fats rise into a thick, pale, pasty froth. The drink beneath is earthy, lightly bitter and floral; the foam is scooped and eaten almost like a separate course. Often called "the drink of the gods," it is served cool in a painted gourd bowl, plain or lightly sweetened, and is one of the most distinctive surviving Mesoamerican beverages.