Homage to the Pulqueria

My adventures in Mexico City in search of the pre-Hispanic intoxicant

Ever heard of pulque? I was familiar with the name. Maybe I’d read about the drink in Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano, a reference to a limbo-like, sawdust-floored pulqueria, where banditos and ladrones cursed, spat, sharpened machetes and sipped a loco-making brew. But before going down to CDMX (Mexico City), I’d never tasted the stuff. The closest …