Maíz y Cacao

As the days grow shorter and the evenings cooler, I find myself craving champurrado, a traditional beverage of maize, milk, and Mexican chocolate. Beyond its comforting flavor, champurrado carries profound cultural resonance. Over the years, through travels across Mexico and time spent in Oaxaca, I’ve learned that its main ingredients, maize and cacao, are far more than staples of the Mexican table; they are cornerstones of Mesoamerican civilization.

Among the Zapotec people, whose culture flourished in Oaxaca around 500 B.C., both maize and cacao were central to economic, spiritual, and social life. The cultivation of maize itself predates the Zapotec by thousands of years and was regarded as the very origin of human life. Within Zapotec cosmology, maize was not simply sustenance, it was a living entity imbued with spirit and divinity. Cacao, by contrast, held a more exclusive status. Once cultivated and consumed by the Olmecs over 3,000 years ago and later adopted by the Zapotec and other Mesoamerican groups, cacao served dual roles: a ritual beverage and a medium of exchange.

In Zapotec society, cacao was prepared as a thick, frothy drink, often combined with maize and aromatic spices. It was consumed during religious ceremonies, offered to the gods, and shared in rites of passage such as marriages and funerals. The combination of maize and cacao thus symbolized both earthly sustenance and spiritual elevation, a duality that continues to inspire artisans today.

It was from this cultural lineage that Maestra Berta Vásquez, one of Oaxaca’s most respected mezcaleras, drew inspiration for her latest batch for Agua del Sol:

“One day, three years ago, I was at the palenque. When I tested the alcohol in the heads of my mezcal with a venencia, I saw the pearls in my jícara, and they reminded me of the froth when I make hot chocolate. Then it came to me—why don’t I make mezcal with cacao, and with maize, because maize also smells good, it tastes so good. So I told myself, I’m going to make a batch of mezcal and distill it with maize and cacao. That’s why I’ve made this delicious mezcal with maize and cacao. I hope that you will like it too.”

With this bottling, Maestra Berta bridges ancestral tradition and personal creativity, transforming two of Mesoamerica’s most sacred ingredients into a singular expression of mezcal, one that honors the agricultural, spiritual, and cultural roots of Oaxaca.

This year, Agua del Sol and the BHI Team are honored to release Maestra Berta’s second batch of Espadín destilado con Maíz y Cacao, a total of just 198 bottles, following her first small batch released two years ago. Each bottle reflects Berta’s deep respect for her craft and for the ingredients that have nourished Oaxacan culture for millennia.

Watch the video of her preparing this special expression here.