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Fermentation Atlas

Alcoholic drinks from Yucatán Peninsula

Balchébalche' (Yucatec Maya)

Balché is the sacred honey drink of the Maya. Strips of bark from the balché tree (Lonchocarpus) are soaked in water sweetened with honey, covered with leaves and left to ferment for a day or a few days. It is brewed for a ceremony, offered to the gods and drunk by the people taking part. Made in 5 steps over 24 h – 2 days. The longest step, cover with leaves and ferment, takes 24 h – 2 days (McGee R.J. 1991). Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the only microbe recorded so far does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step24 h – 2 daysReported[mcgee1991]Cover with leaves and ferment
Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks24 h – 2 daysFamily: Mead (base flow)More alcoholic drinksMore from Mexico

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceOne Lacandon batch as McGee recorded it in the village of Najá, brewed in a dugout canoe for one ceremony. Yucatec makers use other vessels and amounts.
Ten jars (pak) of waterWater · Carried in a large clay jar to fill the dugout canoe[mcgee1991]
Usually 5 litresHoney · Sugar cane or granulated sugar is also used[mcgee1991]
Long strips of balché bark (Lonchocarpus longistylus)[mcgee1991]
Palm and banana leaves · To cover the canoe[mcgee1991]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 24 h – 2 days

Start
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What changes: Water carried in a clay jar fills the dugout brewing canoe

Step 1 of 5
Fill the brewing canoe with water
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Yeasts

The water is carried in ten trips with the pak, a clay jar with the face of Bol, the Lacandon god of balché. Output: canoe of water.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

What makes this one different

Balché is a mead made only for ritual. Bark of the balché tree is fermented with the honey water, and the Lacandon brew it in a dugout canoe for a single day, so it stays mild and sweet.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Eastern YucatánBark, honey (or sugar) and water are left together in a vessel for up to three days before the ceremony, as strong as the rite needs.
  • Southern YucatánThe bark is boiled with honey and star anise just before the ceremony begins.
  • Tree-hole balchéBark is boiled to remove bitterness, dried, boiled again in cenote or river water, mixed with honey and fermented 2–3 days in a hollow in a tree sealed with banana or palm leaves.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Bishop Diego de Landa wrote that the Maya made wine of honey, water and the root of a tree they grew for it. A 1562 idolatry trial in Homún recorded the drink in a small canoe, and in 1613 Sánchez de Aguilar urged that no one make or drink balché, as it was offered to idols. The 1579 Relación de Valladolid says it was believed to purge the body. Most Lacandon held balché rites until the 1950s; by 1991 only the people of Najá kept the old religion and its balché rite.

  1. [mcgee1991] McGee R.J. 1991, The balché ritual of the Lacandon Maya, Estudios de Cultura Maya 18:439–457, UNAMpaper
  2. [gabriel2007] Gabriel M., El uso ritual de alcohol, tabaco, cacao e incienso en las ceremonias agrarias de los mayas yucatecos contemporáneos, Estudios de Cultura Maya 29, UNAM (field data 1976–2004)paper
  3. [ojeda2021] Ojeda-Linares C. et al. 2021, Traditional fermented beverages of Mexico: a biocultural unseen foodscape, Foods 10(10):2390paper
  4. [wp-balche] Wikipedia, Balché (outline only)wiki