Penca's Tepache Recipe | PUNCH (2024)

Walk down a bustling city street in one of Mexico’s major cities and it won’t be long before you run into a street vendor peddling a curious lineup of Technicolor beverages from industrial-sized plastic containers. Within these jugs one can find an array ofaguas frescas—from horchata to tamarindo—but most interesting istepache, a tangy, fermented beverage whose alcohol content places it outside the realm of fruit juice. It’s a staple on the streets of Mexico and has been consumed and produced all over the country since pre-Columbian times. Corn was the original base ingredient for the drink up until at least the early 1500s (hence the nametepache, which comes from the nahuatl wordtapiatlmeaning “drink made from corn”), but today it’s most commonly made with pineapple flesh and rinds, invigorated with cinnamon, clove and other spices, and sweetened withpiloncillo(Mexican brown sugar).

At Penca, in Tucson, Arizona, the house tepache is made with whole overripe pineapples, cloves, allspice and a finisher of Mexican beer and brown sugar. The result is a pungent, tangy versionperfect for mixing with beer or into a stronger co*cktail like Brian Eichhorst’s Bourbon and Tepache.

Tagged: Brian Eichhorst, Qui, tepache

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