Key Takeaways
- Traditional Mexican beverages include tequila, mezcal, margarita, and pulque.
- Choose between cooling non-alcoholic refreshments, winter warmers, and drinks for fiestas.
- Many drinks follow recipes handed down from Aztec times.
Ask someone to name some Mexican beverages, and most people will say tequila, mezcal, or margarita. While these are popular Mexican drinks worldwide, there’s a much larger smorgasbord of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages packing a unique punch.
Mexico’s drink makers use everything from hot sauce to brown sugar, tortilla flour to hibiscus flowers to conjure up some of the world’s most refreshing drinks. Many are perfect accompaniments to incredible Mexican food and date back to a time before the Aztecs.
Keep reading to find what could become your new favorite Mexican beverage.
Mexican Beverages: Popular Mexican Drinks
With margaritas, tequila, and mezcal identified, many other popular Mexican drinks include beers like Corona, Mexican punch, or ponche, and the spicy, tomato-forward, and beer-laden michelada.
For many, these drinks are more associated with dining out at Mexican or Tex-Mex restaurants or during Cinco de Mayo celebrations.
However, the incredibly varied Mexican cuisine and climate demands to be married to equally assorted drinks. Let’s start with some of the country’s most refreshing non-alcoholic beverages.
What Are Some Popular Non-Alcoholic Mexican Drinks?
Here are a few fabulous non-alcoholic Mexican beverages for all occasions, from beating the cold to keeping you cool. And given Mexico’s boiling summers, let’s start with those refreshing ones.
Agua Frescas (Fresh Waters)
When the Mexican sun beats down on the streets, people reach for agua frescas. You’ll find these light, non-alcoholic beverages everywhere, from taco stands to opulent restaurants.
Seemingly, everyone has their own twist to these fresh and flavored waters. Many are fruit-based with lime juice, mango, watermelon, and strawberry. Others combine flowers, seeds, and even vegetables. Sugar, agave, and mint may add some final notes to these hydrating delights.
Agua de Jamaica (Iced Hibiscus Tea)
In Spanish, hibiscus translates as jamaica (pronounced ha-mai-kah). In Mexico, hibiscus flowers are converted into one of the country’s best drinks: agua de jamaica. Locals brew tea with a velvety-red hue with dried hibiscus flowers, often delicately sweetened with sugar or given extra tartness with lime juice.
Other cooling traditional Mexican drinks to look out for include:
Iced horchata: Soaked rice and almonds are blended with cinnamon, milk, and sugar, then served with ice for this classic.
Chamoyada: Chamoy — a sweet and spicy paste or liquid made from picked fruit — meets fruit, chili, and shaved ice to make a chamoyada.
Batidos: In Latin America’s milkshakes, batidos are as you’d expect: fresh fruit, milk, and perhaps flavorings to taste, with ice optional.
Tejate: This maize and cacao drink is spooned from large, ice-filled bowls into colorful gourds called jicaras. The flor de cacao within mixes with water to create a foamy top.
Non-Alcoholic Mexican Drinks to Keep You Warm
Mexico isn’t all sunshine and ice-cold drinks. Many places are positively chilly, even in summer, thanks to the high mountain ranges that cover the country. Indeed, Veracruz has more than a month’s worth of snowy days every year, while in Toluca, the barometer can drop as low as 16 degrees Fahrenheit (-8.5 degrees Celsius). Here are some classic Mexican non-alcoholic winter warmers.
Mexican Hot Chocolate
Hot chocolate fans will love Mexico. Traditional Mexican hot chocolate blends unsweetened cocoa with cinnamon for a warming drink, with an extra touch of chili to kick up the heat.
A popular breakfast or afternoon drink is the blissful champurrado. This hot chocolate is an atole, an Aztec-era beverage that uses corn tortilla flour, masa harina, and cocoa as its base. Milk or water combines with brown sugar (piloncillo) with cinnamon, vanilla, or anise flavorings to taste.
Café de Olla
Every family, café, and restaurant has its own recipe for this traditional coffee drink. Common denominators are coffee, unrefined whole cane sugar (piloncillo), and cloves.
Brewed coffee is poured into an olla (pan) with a cinnamon stick protruding. Variations include adding citrus peel or steeping the coffee, spices, and sugar in a cloth before serving. Aniseed is another typical addition in southern regions.
If you want a coffee with a bit more kick after enjoying some fine Mexican cuisine, a hot or cold carajillo is perfect. Freshly brewed coffee is joined by Licor 43, a sweet Spanish liqueur, and orange zest. Some people prefer their carajillo with whiskey or brandy.
Which Mexican Beers Are Popular Internationally?
The universal language of beer is spoken across Mexico. Whether enjoyed as is or mixed to make new drinks, you’re sure to know several Mexican beers.
Corona Extra, Pacifico, Modelo, and Tecate are among the most famous. Need more? Sol, Indio, Dos Equis, and Victoria are popular. Mexico also has a growing craft beer scene domestically.
One curious traditional Mexican drink is the michelada. Mexican beer mixes with Clamato — sugared tomato juice — and spices and comes in a large glass with a salty or spicy rim. These beloved hangover cures are popular at lunchtimes and pack less of an alcoholic punch than the traditional hair of the dog, the Bloody Mary.
What Are the Key Ingredients in a Classic Margarita?
We’ve finally reached the elephant in the room: margarita, perhaps the most famous Mexican beverage globally. In Spanish, margarita means daisy, which some say comes from a daisy flower closing at night and opening in the morning, making it the “day’s eye.”
The first reports of a daisy drink surfaced in the 1930s in Tijuana, Mexico. Carlos “Danny” Herrera claimed to have invented the drink in 1938 at his Tijuana restaurant, Rancho La Gloria. But it may be that Doña Bertha claimed the inventor’s title at her Bertha’s Bar in Taxco in 1930.
Regardless, what makes the margarita stand the test of time is not just its unique mix of salty, bitter, and sour. Its simplicity, made with good-quality ingredients, is what makes it stand out.
The key ingredients to a margarita are tequila blanco, triple sec (Cointreau), lime juice, and salt. There are innumerable variations, with spicy salt rims, watermelon flavors, or swapping out tequila for mezcal.
Ranch water is similar but simpler to make. It’s popular from California to Texas and is also a star in Mexico. This fizzy, less-sweet version of a margarita requires just tequila, lime juice, and seltzer, preferably the Topo Chico brand.
What’s the Difference Between a Margarita and a Paloma?
The three staple ingredients holds for another tequila-based classic: the Paloma.
A Paloma requires tequila, lime juice, salt, grapefruit soda or juice, and plenty of ice. Swapping out the triple sec and adding grapefruit juice or soda gives a citrus kick that margaritas miss. Max out the sweet-and-sour combination with a spicy chili powder-salt rim.
What’s the Difference Between Tequila and Mezcal?
Tequila is a type of mezcal, and both come from the agave plant (pictured above).
The primary difference between tequila and mezcal is that mezcal can come from any of the 50 species of agave plants. In contrast, tequila may only be produced from one agave plant: the Weber blue agave, also known as the agave tequilana Weber.
Digging deeper, tequila agave spirit comes from an oven-steaming process, whereas mezcal agave is often roasted. This accounts for mezcal’s smokier notes when compared to tequila.
Keep an eye out for the agave plant’s rebellious cousin, raicilla. Once frowned upon as Mexico’s moonshine, cocktail makers are picking up on its versatile fruity and floral notes and using it in Mexican cocktails.
Why Is Tequila Important to Mexico?
Tequila has illuminated Mexican celebrations since before the country adopted its modern name. In ancient times, Aztecs distilled tequila from the agave plant, a tradition that continues today.
Tequila’s starring role in margaritas has helped it become the second most popular spirit by sales value in the United States in 2023, beating American whiskey. Purity is the watchword when buying tequila:
- 100% agave means pure, high-quality tequila with only blue agave plant sugars.
- Mixto or mixed tequila has other sugars or molasses added during production, leaving it with at least 51% blue agave plant sugars present.
Next, choose how you like your tequila by taste and production style:
- Blanco (silver): Pure, young tequila perfect for margaritas. You can also substitute vodka for vodka in a Bloody Mary with this tequila.
- Joven (gold): This tequila is interchangeable with blancos in cocktails but has a darker, caramel appearance.
- Añejo (mature): Darker and smoother than silver and gold tequilas, añejo moves into sipping territory.
- Reposado (aged): Rests in whiskey, wine, or bourbon barrels to add taste.
- Extra añejo (extra-aged): Spends three years in a barrel for the smoothest sipping tequila finish.
What Are Some Traditional Mexican Beverages?
There’s more to Mexico’s traditional drinks than tequila, mezcal, margaritas, micheladas, and chamoyadas.
Tepache is a low-alcohol classic through the ages. Leftover pineapple peels and rinds are fermented for a few days, then served with cinnamon atop and sweetened with piloncillo or brown sugar.
The Christmas feel-good drink Mexican ponche is a warming, sangria-type affair, often with whole fruits in the cup. Pears, guava, oranges or orange juice, apples, tamarind, and hibiscus are common ingredients, with brandy or rum splashes adding a literal punch. Rompope is a Mexican eggnog.
Want wine that looks like milk? No problem. Pulque is an agave wine from central Mexico, made from the lightly fermented sap of the agave (the same plant used to make tequila and mezcal). Sweet, yeasty, and thick, it’s about as strong as beer and as Mexican as it gets in historical terms. Flavored versions are available for those who find the zing too electric.
Can You Describe the Cultural Significance of Pulque in Mexican History?
The Aztecs believed pulque came from Mayahuel, the goddess of maguey, which is part of the agave family that produces tequila and mezcal.
Pulque was a sacred drink reserved for gods and priests. After the Spanish colonization of Mexico and the collapse of the Aztec empire, pulque became more widespread, with locals believing it had curative properties.
By the end of the 19th century, pulque was Mexico’s prime alcoholic drink. It became an iconic part of Mexican identity during its fight for independence. Indeed, pulque has survived the onslaught of modern, sophisticated advertising campaigns to remain a cornerstone of Mexico’s traditional drinks.
Mexican Beverages: Something for Everyone to Enjoy
Margaritas, tequila, and mezcal are as imprinted in the world’s mind as being as Mexican as mariachis and telenovelas. But Mexico has so much more to offer with its refreshing and unique drinks.
There are refreshing, non-alcoholic classics like aguas frescas and agua de jamaica to keep you cool on the hottest days. Dense hot chocolates are perfect for winter, as are the various coffees, with or without the added spice of a splash of a liqueur.
Once alcohol is involved, the recipes become more extravagant. Beer with tomato juice for a michelada, fermented pineapple juice, and sacred wine called pulque from the same agave plant as tequila and mezcal.
There are multiple versions of the classic margarita, as cocktail makers have sought variations: go citric with grapefruit juice, reduce the sugar with ranch water, or go large by adding mezcal.
Mexican beverages offer an almost endless choice. It’s not what to drink that challenges any visitor to Mexico — it’s deciding which delicious beverage to drink.
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