Cactus Wine for Kings: Nochocle Production in the Tehuacán Valley

COXCATLÁN , PU—Coxcatlán in the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley of southern Puebla state has one of the oldest histories in the Americas. The municipality declares itself the “Cuna de Maiz,” meaning the cradle, or birthplace, of corn. They’re not far off from the truth–archaeology here suggests that agricultural activity and domestication of important Mesoamericans plants may have started in the region thousands of years ago. Some newer findings in the Coxcatlán Cave have even suggested that humans were present in North America over 30,000 years ago, far longer than previously thought.

The residents of the modern municipality of Coxcatlán have inherited a touch of the ancestral knowledge that comes with the territory. Part of the traditional gastronomy is the seasonal production of nochocle, or organ pipe cactus fruit wine. Each year, during a small window between April and May, a select few residents with the know-how wake up at the crack of dawn to harvest the choicest tunas, or fruit, from humongous cardón cacti. If they wait until daybreak, the heat of the sun will force the sweetest of the fruit to burst open, inviting birds, bats, and insects to feast on the juicy flesh and spread its seeds.

Locals call the cactus that gives nochocle its fruit cardón, but this is an imprecise common usage. The wine is most likely made from the fruit of Neobuxbaumia macrocephala, the Giant Cardón of Tehuacán, an endemic species. Its relatives Neobuxbaumia mezcalaensis and Neobuxbaumia tetetzo may be used as well. It seems that producers know the plants intimately, but could care less about scientific names. Moreover, the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Valley is home to over 81 unique species of cactus, many of which feature in the local diet.

The modern term nochocle seems to be specific to this Valley in Mexico. Other cactus wines exist in other arid parts of Mexico. The northern Altiplano in San Luis and Zacatecas ferments a seasonal wine from the more common prickly pear fruit. They call their brew colonche. Clearly, nochocle is a direct derivative of the Nahuatl name for the wine, nochoctli, which combines nochtli, for cactus fruit, and octli, for pulque.

I arrived in Coxcatlán in late May, hoping to find the wine in season. To my disappointment, I had missed the weeks-long window by two weeks. The seasonal rains had come, the fruit had burst, and the wine had been consumed. Nevertheless, I was in Coxcatlán and asked after producers of the wine. Locals pointed me to the house of Maria del Refugio, known locally as Doña Cuca (short for Doña Cucaracha.) I made my way to her gate, where she agreed to speak to me about the production, sale, and legacy of nochocle over fresh mangos, frozen tetecha cactus fruits, and candied figs.

The following interview has been translated and edited for clarity and concision.

Q: I hear you are known for your nochocle throughout town?

A: One year ago, I stopped selling due to the Pandemic. Well, first due to the Pandemic, but then I was working in the field and I fell and hurt my spine.

The season is from the middle of April into part of May. To go and to produce nochocle, you must go very early in the morning. Otherwise, the tuna will get warm and it’ll open. I used to go at 5:30 AM, by 9 I was already coming home with a bowl of pulp. As I’m hurt, I can’t go any longer. But I used to sell a lot. My nochocle went to Oaxaca, Veracruz, the United States, to many places.

Q: Can you please explain the basics of how nochocle is produced?

A:You must go and cut the fruit. At the harvest of the tuna, the production begins. If you don’t harvest it well, it’s lost. You must see that the tuna is ready and ripe. My mother taught me when I was a child how to tell which tuna was ready. You can’t just pick whichever tuna. You must know the time of maturity.

We use a basket on the end of a long stick. Mangos are cut this way. So are tunas. So we have one that blocks the sun so that we can see the tuna well, and we have another one that reaches to the tuna. There in the field, you get rid of the spines. You must wash the fruits because a kind of little worm can come out, or little roots, whatever is stuck to the surface of the tuna. You collect them in a basket, return to the house, and there the process begins. With the pulp, you must start immediately because it will go bad. The pulp is filtered to collect the seeds.

We begin to work with it. To the pulp, we add a bit of pulque. It’s not a lot. One needs to know the quantity. The pulque, if I go to buy it, it’s already fermented. So instead, I go to the hills to look for it. That same day that I will prepare nochocle, I hike up to look for it.

If it’s too much pulque, we call it tepache. To sell that, it’s to sell another thing–like a kind of cider. The fermentation is started by the pulque. If you add the pulque today, the nochocle is in its full fermentation tomorrow. We make it and then it begins to bubble and expand.

Q: How did you learn to make nochocle?

A: My mother taught me. And her mother-in-law taught her. My grandmother is from here. My father is from here. I am from here. My mother made her living from selling chocolate, which she made with a metate, nochocle, and temazcal baths.

It is beautiful to know. My daughter and granddaughter know the tradition.

From the seed of this tuna a salsa is also prepared. One must learn how to toast the seed. Not just anyone can learn. Because the seed is black, you must know how long to cook it until it gets to its toasting point. Then an aromatic avocado leaf is toasted, and el chiltepe, a small chile, is well toasted. It is all ground together until it is nice and thick. It is one of a kind.

Q: Can you tell me about running a business selling nochocle?

A: It tastes very delicious, very tasty. The people come for 20 to 50 liters in water jerry cans. It costs between 40 and 50 pesos a liter. Doctors and nurses come to buy a supply for hospital personnel. Engineers come. Union workers come. We sold a lot. It’s nothing more than the fact that other people don’t know how to make it.

But it is hard work. During the season, I used to make it every day. My granddaughter, my son, her father, they would all accompany me to get tunas.

My neighbor of my mother’s generation, who has died, used to sell the drink. One time, a construction worker came to buy a liter. In the time that it took for me to get the bottle, my neighbor came out and gifted him her nochocle. She gave it to him as a gift and I was selling it. But hers was tepache, it had more pulque. Not just anyone can make nochocle.

Professors came here and they told me that the only one who knows the exact recipe is me.

Q: What does nochocle taste like?

A: It is sweet. From the moment you cut the fruit, it is sweet. It is the tuna of cardón. You can eat it with a spoon too.

It does not get you drunk. I tell the people I sell to, “Drink it with ice.” It’s a very delicious drink.

They haven’t done any studies on the effects of nochocle. The only thing that we can say is that at the moment that you drink the nochocle, if you are eating, you feel well. You won’t feel any thirst. It is a digestive.

Q: What does nochocle mean to culture in Coxcatlán?

A:Here there is a lot of fruit. But my mother told me that this drink was made for kings. It is said that this place is called Sanswantsi. They say it was a place with a temple and a city. There the kings came together and this drink was presented to the kings by the priests. For this reason, not just anyone can know how to prepare it.

It is a place of gemstones. There, artifacts are found. There, where the nochocle tunas are, we find artifacts. There, where the plants are. It was a sacred place. By these artifacts, I can confirm that it was sacred. There in the roots of the cacti, we find these vestiges.

Not only has the knowledge of nochocle production been passed down between generations, but stone artifacts found in the fields of cacti have been passed down as family heirlooms. Nochocle, a beverage that is preserved by only a few producers in the Valley, is part of an ancient culture that knew the use of the cactus fruit.

Now, the next generation is prepared to continue making nochocle for home consumption, even if the commercial sale of the drink has fallen by the wayside. As I marveled at the family tradition of Dona Cuca, and the collection of stone statues and artifacts, she commented, “You got lucky finding me!”

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