How to make Tepache
The refreshing fermented pineapple drink
Alright, let’s talk Tepache!
Tepache is a fermented pineapple drink originating from Mexico. This drink is really awesome and unique and perfectly suited for those hot days where you want to quench your thirst. This is a great drink to get you started into the world of fermentation. If you wanna work yourself up to making beer, mead, or cider, this is a good first step if you aren’t ready to dive just in. It’s really nice because, besides the pineapple, I am pretty sure you have all of the other stuff you may need lying around. The reason for this is because, the drink is fermented from the natural yeast that exists on the skin of the pineapple, along with some additional sugar to kickstart the process.
Alright, let’s jump into this delicious recipe.
Preparing the fermenting syrup
Alright, I mentioned that this is a pineapple drink, so let’s start with the other ingredients that aren't the pineapple. Let’s start with the spicy backbone of this drink, the cinnamon. Now I am using cinnamon sticks because this will allow me to easily pull them out later when I want to, but if all you got is cinnamon powder, that is apparently the traditional ingredient.
We are additionally going to need some sugar as I mentioned earlier. I am going to use some panela sugar, which is an unrefined sugar giving us some additional flavor. If you can’t find this, you can substitute it with palm sugar, jaggery, or even just straight-up brown sugar, and be sure to check out my video on brown sugar if you haven’t already.
Alright, I am using 200 grams or 8 oz of this panela sugar. We want this to dissolve easily in water, and to do that I am going to use a mortar and pestle to break this up into small granules. . If you are using brown sugar, you can skip this step.
After it’s broken up, I am going to place the sugar into a container along with my cinnamon. Next, we wanna pour about a cup of near-boiling water over the cinnamon and sugar, then begin stirring. We really want the sugar to dissolve into the water, giving us a nice cinnamon syrup. We want this to cool before we add it to the pineapple otherwise we might kill the yeast on the skin, so just pop this into the freezer to cool down a little bit while we prep our pineapple.
Prepping the pineapple
Speaking of which, Let’s get choppy. Cut the top of the pineapple off quarter the pineapple-like this. Slice out the core, and then begin cutting quarter slices about an inch or 2 cm thick.
Once you have cut up all the pineapple, start placing the pieces into your fermentation vessel. For me I am using some fermentation jars I found online, however, any old mason jar will work, just be sure to cover with a cloth. A sealed mason jar, could in theory explode.
Alright once we have all of the pineapple pieces in the jar, we need to wait until our sugar syrup is cooled down to room temp, once it is, go ahead and pour the syrup into the fermentation vessel, add enough water to cover everything and ensure to bring the cinnamon sticks along for the ride. Close this up and just let it chill.
Fermentation
Depending on how warm it is, after a few days, you should start to see little bubbles on the surface of the tepache, and it should smell like one of the best things in the universe. If it does, then you are on the right track. Yeast spores float through the air everywhere and attach to sources of sugary food such as fruit. What we have essentially done is given a place for that yeast to thrive, and begin reproducing and fermenting our pineapple and sugar. Just close it up and let it keep going.
I let mine ferment for a week because it’s pretty cold where I am at, but if it’s warmer, you should notice that it ferments a whole lot faster. Feel free to taste it using a clean spoon along the way, you should notice it getting tangier and the flavor becoming very complicated.
Once you are satisfied with the flavor, it’s time to take to drink it. I strained mine for ease of filming, but if you wanna just pour some out, that will also work. Serve the tepache over ice and enjoy!
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Bye!
Condensed Recipe:
Ingredients:
8 oz. [200 g] unrefined (Panala, palm or Jaggery) or brown sugar
3 cinnamon sticks
1/2 pineapple
Enjoy!