If you’ve had pulque in Mexico City — the thick, slightly sour, mildly alcoholic drink made from fermented maguey sap — you’ve had the domesticated version. The stuff served in the capital’s trendy pulquerias is fine, sometimes even good, but it’s been transported, stored, and occasionally flavored into something its makers in the countryside might not fully recognize.
To understand pulque properly, you need to go where it comes from. And where it comes from, more than anywhere else, is the Llanos de Apan — the high plains of Apan in the state of Hidalgo, about two hours northeast of Mexico City. This is pulque country. The landscape is dominated by maguey fields stretching to the horizon, punctuated by the crumbling haciendas that once made pulque production one of the most profitable industries in colonial and 19th-century Mexico.
The Pulque Story
Pulque predates the Spanish by centuries. The Aztecs regulated its consumption strictly — public drunkenness was punishable by death, and only the elderly, pregnant women, and priests were allowed to drink freely. After the conquest, those restrictions vanished, and pulque consumption exploded. By the 18th and 19th centuries, the haciendas around Apan were producing enormous quantities of pulque for Mexico City, transporting it by mule train and later by railroad.
The Apan area was ideal for maguey cultivation. The high altitude (around 2,400 meters), dry climate, and volcanic soil produced agave plants — specifically the maguey manso variety — with high-quality aguamiel (honey water), the sap that ferments into pulque. The haciendas that controlled the maguey fields became some of the richest estates in Mexico, and their owners some of the most powerful people in the country.
Pulque’s decline came in the 20th century, pushed aside by beer (backed by aggressive marketing from German-influenced breweries) and undermined by rumors — almost certainly spread by the beer industry — that the fermentation process involved unsanitary practices. The haciendas collapsed after the Mexican Revolution redistributed their land. The railroad stopped running. The production declined from an industrial scale to a cottage one.
What survived is what you’ll find around Apan today: small-scale pulque producers making the drink the traditional way, hacienda ruins that hint at the industry’s former scale, and maguey fields that still define the landscape.
The Haciendas
The pulque haciendas around Apan are some of the most evocative ruins in central Mexico. At their peak, these were enormous operations: the main house (casco) where the owner lived, the tinacal where pulque was fermented in massive cowhide vats, workers’ quarters, chapels, stables, and sometimes their own rail sidings for loading pulque onto trains.
Several haciendas are accessible as day trips from Apan:
Hacienda San Antonio Ometusco
One of the better-preserved haciendas, located just outside Apan. The main buildings are still standing, including the chapel and parts of the tinacal. It’s been partially restored and hosts events. The scale of the place gives you a sense of how profitable pulque once was.
Hacienda San Miguel Ometusco
Nearby and more ruined, which gives it a different kind of appeal. Walking through the roofless rooms and collapsed arches, surrounded by maguey fields, is genuinely atmospheric. Bring good shoes and watch for unstable structures.
Hacienda Tecajete
Further from Apan but worth the detour if you’re making a day of it. The hacienda has been partially converted into an event venue, but the original structures — including an impressive main house and chapel — are visible and photogenic.
The Maguey Fields
Driving between the haciendas, you’ll pass through the maguey fields that define the Llanos de Apan. The plants are striking — large, blue-green rosettes of thick, spiky leaves that can take eight to twelve years to mature before they’re ready for aguamiel extraction. A skilled tlachiquero (maguey tapper) scrapes the plant’s core daily to collect the sap, which begins fermenting almost immediately and needs to be consumed or processed within hours.
If you can arrange a visit to a working maguey operation — ask at pulquerias in Apan town, or hire a local guide — watching a tlachiquero work is fascinating. The extraction technique hasn’t changed significantly in centuries. The tools are simple, the skill is considerable, and the relationship between the tapper and the plant is intimate in a way that industrial agriculture has lost.
Apan Town
The town of Apan itself is a small, pleasant place with a central plaza, a parish church, and a handful of pulquerias where you can taste fresh pulque that was probably fermented that morning. The quality difference between fresh Apan pulque and the bottled stuff you get in Mexico City is immediately obvious — it’s smoother, more complex, and alive in a way that transported pulque isn’t.
Try it natural (unflavored) first. If you want to explore curados (flavored with fruit), those are available too, but the natural version is the honest test of quality. A liter costs almost nothing. Drink slowly — pulque is lower in alcohol than beer but has a cumulative effect that sneaks up on you, especially at altitude.
The town has a small museum dedicated to pulque and maguey culture, and the municipal market is worth a quick visit for food.
Getting There
Apan is about 120 kilometers northeast of Mexico City, roughly two hours by car via the Mexico-Pachuca highway (Highway 85D) and then east on the Apan road. The drive is straightforward and scenic once you leave the city.
Buses to Apan run from the Terminal del Norte in Mexico City, operated by several regional lines. The trip takes two to three hours depending on stops. Once in Apan, you’ll want a car or taxi to reach the haciendas, as they’re spread across the countryside with limited public transport.
This isn’t an organized-tour destination — the infrastructure for tourists is minimal. That’s part of the appeal but also means you should plan ahead: gas up before leaving the highway, bring water, and have a general idea of which haciendas you want to visit. A full day is enough to see Apan town and two or three haciendas.
For more day trip options from Mexico City, see our full surroundings guide.
Why Go
Apan isn’t for everyone. If you need polished tourist infrastructure, comfortable restaurants, and English-speaking guides, look elsewhere. But if you want to understand one of Mexico’s oldest and most culturally significant beverages in the landscape that produced it, surrounded by the ruins of the industry that made it famous, Apan is the real thing. No one has prettied it up for your visit. No one’s going to try to sell you a T-shirt. You’ll just be standing in a maguey field, drinking pulque from a jicara, looking at a hacienda that’s been slowly returning to the earth for a hundred years. That’s enough.