Sacred Mayan Beverages The Mayan culture because they look for what can’t be explained, what be can’t touch. Symbolic messages hidden in the religious and social things, and their food were a merely sacred thing. Among the symbolic ceremonial drinks that they used to use, two were the most important ones: the Balche, which was the one used the most, and that even in these days they drink in their ceremonies and the Saka. These two liquors were considered symbolic for its pure and natural contents. The legend says that the Balche was created thanks to a love story about a young girl called Sak-Nicte (white flower) and a young warrior from the same tribe, both of them hid in the Mayab jungle, running away from an old cacique that wanted to separate them. They, looking for something to eat, found a honeycomb; they took the honey out and left it inside a tree called Balche. Early in the morning started to rain, the water got mixed with the honey, and this exquisite beverage was formed. Days went bye and the cacique found them, when the young warrior saw that his days were about to end, he offered him great food and this beverage was served, the ecstatic cacique accepted to let them live only if they told him the recipe of the sweet and delicious liquor. Since then, this liquor has two basic uses among Mayans; purify the person in order to be able to participate in the ceremony, and produce specific feelings that may let the person walk into sacred world. The second representative beverage of the Mayans is the Saka (corn), it is made of not well cooked nixtamal and used specially to be offered to the gods of the mountain during milpa phases that symbolize life, youth, immortality and wisdom. This offer to the gods is very important so man may be protected of dangerous animals, or those that eat the corn, and among all, it is important to make rain fall and water the corn, because if there were a lack of water and not corn could be produced men would die because they wouldn’t be able to reproduce, because corn was known as a fertility symbol. To try these drinks for the first time is really a ritual, but once you try them, for sure you will ask for a little bit more.
