Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Alcoholic drinks from State of Mexico

Sendechó (Mazahua/Hñähñu maize-and-chilli beer)sendechó

Sendechó is a Mazahua drink of sprouted native maize. A 2025 study of the recipe in San Nicolás Guadalupe names native blue maize, pine leaves, pulque, water and piloncillo as its essential ingredients and puts the whole preparation at 25 to 30 days. The maize is sprouted, dried, ground and boiled, and pulque is added to start the ferment; some makers add chilli.

Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks22 days – 30 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe sources we could read give no recipe amounts. The one amount used below, 50 g of ground malt per litre of water, comes from a home guide.
Native blue maizeOne of the five essential ingredients in San Nicolás Guadalupe; other maize races and colours are used elsewhere[ruiz2025][ojeda2021]
Pine leaves (ocote)One of the five essential ingredients; a home guide lines the sprouting pit with them[ruiz2025][masa2019]
PulqueAdded as the starter inoculum (called ixquini in the region)[ruiz2025][ojeda2021]
Water[ruiz2025]
Piloncillo (unrefined cane sugar)One of the five essential ingredients; the sources readable here do not say when it goes in[ruiz2025]
ChilliSome makers add chilli peppers when the sprouted maize is ground, or guajillo chilli when it is boiled[ojeda2021][masa2019]
Starterpulque, added as a starter inoculum (called ixquini in the region); a home guide says that without pulque the ferment is wild

Total time across the recorded steps: 22 days – 30 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countLactobacillusLeuconostocPediococcusZymomonas

What changes: Soaked blue maize sprouts in a damp bed of pine leaves

Step 1 of 5
Soak and sprout the maize
Time
5–11 days
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactobacillus
Leuconostoc
Pediococcus
Zymomonas

Other accounts mix Buddleja americana with the sprouting grain (Ojeda-Linares et al. 2021). Output: sprouted maize with roots.

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

At a glance

Sendechó is a Mazahua drink of sprouted native maize. A 2025 study of the recipe in San Nicolás Guadalupe names native blue maize, pine leaves, pulque, water and piloncillo as its essential ingredients and puts the whole preparation at 25 to 30 days. The maize is sprouted, dried, ground and boiled, and pulque is added to start the ferment; some makers add chilli. Made in 5 steps over 22 days – 30 days. The longest step, dry the sprouts in the sun, takes up to 15 days (Masa Americana 2019). Lactic acid bacteria (Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc, Pediococcus), Zymomonas, Acetobacter and yeasts including Saccharomyces, among the microbes a review records for sendechó; the sources do not say which species do the work does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepup to 15 daysReported[masa2019]Dry the sprouts in the sun
Temperature25 °CReported[masa2019]Add pulque and ferment

What makes this one different

Sendechó is made from sprouted maize, like tesgüino, but pulque is added as its starter inoculum and pine leaves are one of its essential ingredients. Tesgüino is the sprouted-maize drink of northern Mexico, fermented spontaneously. Tejuino is a different drink, made from maize dough and brown sugar in Colima and Jalisco.

Total time
Six steps over 25 to 30 days (San Nicolás Guadalupe, 2025 study abstract)

Related ferments

Variants

  • Sendechó with chilliChilli peppers can go in when the sprouted maize is ground, and Romero-Medina et al. (2020) name guajillo chilli as a traditional ingredient.
  • Pigmented-corn craft beersModern beers brewed from red or blue corn malt blended with barley malt, with guajillo chilli, to echo sendechó.

Safety

A review lists, among the microbes recorded for it, genera that include pathogens (Staphylococcus, Klebsiella) and several moulds, and reports no illness. A home guide covers the ferment loosely with cloth to keep out insects and warns that wild ferments can be unreliable.

Hazards the sources name: Genera that include pathogens (Staphylococcus, Klebsiella) appear in the same review's list for sendechó; the review reports no illness (precaution only).

History and sources

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

Sendechó is a typical fermented beverage of the Mazahua in the Valley of Mexico, made by a method close to brewing beer. Its consumption has gradually fallen with changes in eating habits and urbanisation. A study run from November 2022 to April 2024 documented its making in San Nicolás Guadalupe, State of Mexico, with four local chroniclers and experts and three joint preparations with Mazahua women, and concluded that the drink is little known and at risk of disappearing. Researchers have also brewed pigmented-corn beers, with blue or red corn malt and guajillo chilli, to echo it.

  1. [ojeda2021] Ojeda-Linares C. et al. 2021, Traditional fermented beverages of Mexico: a biocultural unseen foodscape, Foods 10(10):2390paper
  2. [ruiz2025] Ruiz-Carrillo D.A., Albino-Garduño R., Tejocote-Pérez M., Pillado-Albarrán K.V., Santiago-Mejía H., Salazar-Lara T.V. 2025, Elaboración del Sendechjo, bebida mazahua de maíz nativo en San Nicolás Guadalupe, Estado de México, Estudios Sociales 35(66):e251603 (abstract, read through Crossref)paper
  3. [romero2020] Romero-Medina A., Estarrón-Espinosa M., Verde-Calvo J.R., Lelièvre-Desmas M., Escalona-Buendía H.B. 2020, Renewing traditions, a sensory and chemical characterisation of Mexican pigmented corn beers, Foods 9(7):886paper
  4. [masa2019] Masa Americana 2019, Sende - Sendecho (a naturopathic food blog; home-brewing method and one Mazahua maker's account)web