Tepache
Tepache is a lightly fermented Mexican drink made today mostly from pineapple peels and flesh, piloncillo and cinnamon, left to ferment for a few days until sweet, tart and faintly fizzy. It descends from older corn-based fermented drinks of the same name and is usually very low in alcohol.
Name and history
The name comes from Nahuatl. English Wikipedia gives tepiātl, a raw-corn drink offered to people who felt faint, and Spanish Wikipedia breaks the word down as tepitl, tender corn, and atl, water. Both describe corn as the original base, and Spanish Wikipedia reports that corn tepache is still made in many Indigenous communities and that a stronger version was used ceremonially among the Maya. It lists corn-based traditions in states from Sonora and Chihuahua to Oaxaca, Chiapas and Yucatán.
Modern tepache is usually made with pineapple, though Spanish Wikipedia notes that guava, apple, prickly pear and orange are also fermented this way. Chef Rick Bayless writes that tepache was very popular in Mexico in the 1980s, fell out of fashion for a couple of decades and has recently returned.
Fermentation
Pineapple peel, often with some flesh and core, is covered with water sweetened with piloncillo and left loosely covered at warm room temperature. Wild yeasts and bacteria on the fruit start the fermentation, producing a little alcohol along with lactic acid and carbon dioxide, which give the drink its tartness and slight sparkle. Bayless gives a range of one day to a week depending on temperature, until a white foam forms on top. Spanish Wikipedia notes that longer fermentation raises the alcohol and the sourness, and that after weeks it turns to vinegar. Bayless adds that supermarket pineapples in the United States, sometimes washed or underripe, can be slow to ferment, and that a little wine yeast can be used to start it.
Serving and variations
In Mexico tepache is sold cold by street vendors, sometimes from barrels, in clay mugs or in plastic bags with a straw, according to Wikipedia. Some vendors and home cooks add beer to make it stronger, and some add chile powder. Cinnamon is the usual spice; star anise, cloves and fresh ginger are optional. Tepache de tibicos is fermented with tibicos, or water kefir grains. In the United States it is sold at juice bars and Mexican restaurants in Mexican American communities of the Southwest, and commercial nonalcoholic brands exist.
Ingredients and technique
Wikipedia recommends unrefined sugar such as piloncillo for better flavor and color, and filtered water, since chlorine in tap water can slow the fermentation. Commercial nonalcoholic tepache is also sold, including the Tepachito brand made by Frumex, according to Wikipedia. Spanish Wikipedia describes the finished drink as tasting somewhat like a sweet beer. Because it is cheap to make from the peel left over after cutting a pineapple, it has long been a household and street drink rather than a product of large breweries.
Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ripe pineapple (about 3 lb / 1.4 kg), preferably organic, rinsed
- 8 oz (225 g) piloncillo or dark brown sugar
- 2 quarts (2 liters) filtered water
- 1 or 2 cinnamon sticks, preferably Mexican canela
- 2 whole cloves (optional)
Steps
- Warm 2 cups of the water with the piloncillo and cinnamon until the sugar dissolves, then add the rest of the water and let it cool to room temperature.
- Cut the top and bottom off the pineapple and cut off the peel in wide strips. Cut about half the flesh and the core into chunks; save the rest for eating.
- Put the peels and chunks in a large glass or ceramic jar and pour the cooled syrup over them so the fruit is submerged.
- Cover with a cloth secured with a band and leave at warm room temperature, stirring once a day.
- Start tasting after 24 hours. When foam has formed on top and the drink tastes sweet, tart and slightly fizzy, usually 2 to 3 days, strain out the solids.
- Refrigerate and serve over ice within about two weeks.
Use chlorine-free water, since chlorine can slow fermentation. If no bubbles appear after two or three days, add a pinch of wine or bread yeast. Fermentation continues slowly in the refrigerator, so loosen any sealed lid occasionally.
Reviews
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See also
References
- "Tepache". Wikipedia. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
- "Tepache (bebida alcohólica)". Wikipedia en español. Retrieved 2026-10-10.
- "Tepache". Rick Bayless. Retrieved 2026-10-10.