View From Casita Colibrí

This morning, the Feria del Tejate y el Tamal opened at the Plaza de la Danza — with live music, speeches, scores of tejate and tamal vendors, and hundreds of happy, hungry people.  In the event you are unfamiliar with tejate (which is probably the case if you have never been to Oaxaca), it is a very popular frothy, refreshing, nutritious, and (supposedly) aphrodisiacal non-alcoholic prehispanic beverage.  It is made from corn mixed with tree ash, cacao beans, mamey seeds, rosita de cacao (Quararibea funebris) flowers, and peanuts or pecans (depending on the season).

The preparation takes at least twelve hours, as the beans, seeds, flowers, and nuts must be toasted on a comal and corn must be nixtamalized.  Ingredients are taken to a molino to be milled, then kneaded together, left to cool, eventually being hand-ground on a metate to make a thick paste — which is what one sees in the mercados being thinned with water and (literally) mixed by hand.  For a blow-by-blow photo essay of the process, check out Making Tejate for the Market.

In days gone by, this exquisite beverage was reserved solely for Zapotec royalty.  However, today tejate is for the masses, with tejateras and their massive clay ollas set up at almost every mercado and festival you run across.  One frequently sees tejate poured into colorfully painted gourds and, of course, it tastes even better when served that way!

The sale of tejate is the main economic activitity in San Andrés Huayapam, located about 7 miles northeast of Oaxaca city.  It is prepared and served by the tejateras of the Unión de Mujeres Productoras del Tejate.  At the Feria, many of the tejateras were young — it is good to see the ancestral recipes and skills being passed down to the next generation.

The Feria del Tejate y el Tamal runs through tomorrow (July 26, 2017).  If you are in town, don’t miss it!  Oh yes, there were tamales, so stay tuned…