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Cultural Ferment

Pozol: Southeast Mexico’s Fermented Corn and Cacao Drink (What It Is and How to Make It)

By Updated 2 min read

Make pozol, the ancient Mayan fermented corn-cacao drink from Chiapas and Tabasco. A 3,000-year living tradition — tangy, earthy, refreshing, and packed with probiotics and cacao antioxidants.

At a glance

Pozol is a non-alcoholic drink from Tabasco and Chiapas, Mexico: nixtamalized corn dough, often mixed with ground cacao, is shaped into balls and fermented for half a day to several days, then dissolved in cold water to drink. Lactic acid bacteria, mainly Streptococcus, sour it. Use clean hands and boiled water – pathogenic E. coli have survived in fermenting pozol.

  • Made from nixtamalized corn dough, with cacao for pozol de cacao (negro) or without for pozol blanco.
  • The dough is fermented in balls and dissolved in cold water just before drinking; non-alcoholic.
  • Streptococcus was the most common genus throughout a 48-hour pozol fermentation (López-Sánchez et al., 2023).
  • Nitrogen-fixing bacteria are active in the dough (Rizo et al., 2020).
  • Diarrhea-causing E. coli strains have survived pozol's acidity – hygiene matters.

Ferment profile

Origin
Southeast Mexico (Tabasco, Chiapas)
Fermentation
Lactic acid
Main microbes
Streptococcus (dominant), Weissella confusa, Leuconostoc, Lactococcus and other lactic acid bacteria; nitrogen-fixing Kosakonia, Klebsiella, Enterobacter
Live cultures
Yes
Alcohol
None / trace

Pozol is a traditional drink from southeast Mexico – especially Tabasco and Chiapas – made from nixtamalized corn dough that’s shaped into balls and left to ferment, then mixed with cold water just before drinking. It’s non-alcoholic, thick, refreshing and gets more sour the longer the dough ferments. With cacao ground into the dough it becomes pozol de cacao (also called pozol negro); without it, pozol blanco. It’s a pre-Hispanic Maya food still drunk every day in the region and sold in markets and on the street (Robledo-Márquez et al., 2021).

How Pozol Is Made

  1. Nixtamal: dried corn is cooked in lime (calcium hydroxide) water, rinsed and coarsely ground into dough. Nixtamalization also makes the corn’s niacin available, which is why corn-based diets built on nixtamal don’t cause pellagra.
  2. Balls: the dough – with toasted, ground cacao for pozol de cacao – is shaped into balls and traditionally wrapped in banana or other leaves.
  3. Fermenting: the balls are left at room temperature for anything from half a day to several days. Fresh pozol is mild and sweet; pozol agrio (sour pozol) has fermented longer.
  4. Serving: a piece of dough is dissolved in cold water, sometimes with sugar or salt, and drunk straight away – traditionally from a jícara (gourd bowl).

The Microbes

Pozol is one of the most studied traditional Mexican ferments. Lactic acid bacteria dominate: in a 2023 metagenomic study that sampled pozol over 48 hours, Streptococcus was the most common genus throughout, within a core of 25 abundant genera, and genes for making amino acids and vitamins increased during fermentation (López-Sánchez et al., 2023). Weissella confusa is also common (Hernández-Oaxaca et al., 2021). Unusually, free-living nitrogen-fixing bacteria (Kosakonia, Klebsiella and Enterobacter) have been shown to fix nitrogen in the dough, which may help explain pozol’s reputation as a nourishing food (Rizo et al., 2020).

Is Pozol Safe?

Sourness doesn’t make pozol automatically safe. Researchers isolated 73 E. coli strains from pozol dough at 6 and 48 hours of fermentation, when its pH was 6.7–4.7 and 4.7–3.7; some belonged to diarrhea-causing serogroups and carried virulence genes, and they survived the acidity (Sainz et al., 2001). At home:

  • Work with clean hands and equipment.
  • Use boiled and cooled or bottled water, both for the dough and for serving.
  • Keep the dough covered while it ferments.
  • Discard dough that smells rotten rather than sour, turns slimy or grows fuzzy mold.

How Pozol Is Drunk

  • Pozol de cacao: the most popular version in Tabasco – bittersweet, often with a little sugar.
  • Pozol blanco: plain corn, sometimes with salt and chili, or with sugar.
  • Pozol agrio: longer-fermented and distinctly sour.

Other corn and cacao drinks: Oaxaca’s tejate, Jalisco’s tejuino, and West Africa’s fermented corn porridge ogi. From central Mexico, pulque is fermented agave sap.

Recipe: Pozol de Cacao

Makes
About 6 servings
Hands-on
20 min
Fermentation
12 hours to 3 days at room temperature
Temperature
Room temperature, about 22–28°C (72–82°F)
Difficulty
Easy

Equipment

  • Large bowl
  • Banana leaves or a covered glass or ceramic container
  • Whisk or blender for serving

Ingredients

  • 500 g fresh masa (nixtamal dough) (or masa harina mixed with boiled, cooled water to a firm dough)
  • 60–100 g cacao (toasted ground cacao beans or unsweetened natural cocoa powder)
  • To serve cold boiled or bottled water (about 250 ml per serving)
  • To taste sugar (optional)

Method

  1. With clean hands, knead the cacao into the masa until evenly brown.
  2. Shape into balls of about 80–100 g, pressing out air.
  3. Wrap in banana leaves or place in a covered container and leave at room temperature for 12 hours to 3 days – taste a pinch daily; it gets more sour.
  4. To serve, break a ball into a glass or jug, add about 250 ml cold water and whisk or blend until smooth; sweeten if you like.
  5. Drink straight away. Refrigerate the remaining balls to slow the souring and use within a few days.

Frequently asked questions

What is pozol?

A non-alcoholic drink from Tabasco and Chiapas made by fermenting balls of nixtamalized corn dough, often with cacao, and dissolving them in cold water.

What's the difference between pozol and pozole?

Pozol is a fermented corn drink; pozole is a hominy and meat soup. Both use nixtamalized corn.

What is pozol de cacao?

Pozol made with ground cacao kneaded into the corn dough – also called pozol negro. It's the most popular version in Tabasco.

Is pozol alcoholic?

No. It's soured by lactic acid bacteria and drunk as a non-alcoholic, filling drink.

What does pozol taste like?

Thick and corny, from mildly sweet when fresh to distinctly sour when fermented longer; with cacao it's bittersweet.

Can I make pozol with masa harina?

Yes – mix it with boiled, cooled water into a firm dough. Fresh masa from a tortillería gives a more traditional texture.

Is pozol probiotic?

It contains live lactic acid bacteria when fresh, but there are no human studies showing specific probiotic effects.

Sources

  1. López-Sánchez R et al. (2023). Analysing the dynamics of the bacterial community in pozol, a Mexican fermented corn dough. Microbiology 169(7):001355. Link
  2. Rizo J et al. (2020). Nitrogen fixation in pozol, a traditional fermented beverage. Appl Environ Microbiol 86(16):e00588-20. Link
  3. Hernández-Oaxaca D et al. (2021). Diversity of Weissella confusa in pozol and its carbohydrate metabolism. Front Microbiol 12:629449. Link
  4. Sainz T et al. (2001). Survival and characterization of Escherichia coli strains in a typical Mexican acid-fermented food. Int J Food Microbiol 71(2–3):169–176. Link
  5. Robledo-Márquez K et al. (2021). Research opportunities: traditional fermented beverages in Mexico. Food Res Int 147:110482. Link
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