Mi Vida en México: Leche caliente

Have you ever woken up one morning and craved milk straight from a cow's udder, mixed with some sugar, cocoa, and a splash of alcohol? Well, neither have I…

The drink I described above is leche caliente (or hot milk), a Mexican specialty.

So how did I come to know about this intriguing mixture? One night, my host family here was asking if I had tried this drink before…once they mentioned milk straight from the cow mixed with alcohol I was like nope, never had that one. When my shocking secret had been revealed to the family they set out to correct this and the next morning they insisted that we go to the farm and try it. Unfortunately, because cows are milked in the morning this means an early wake up call, but I was willing to wake up for this drink as it seemed like it was going to change my life based on how excited everyone was to get their leche caliente.

At 7:30 we set out, I was assured I could go in my pajamas so I did…why not be comfortable??? And we made our way the 3 blocks or so to the farm with our mugs in hand (the fact that it was only 3 blocks away should tip you off to how far away I am from the city center). Once we arrive I was surprised to see how many people were outside, drinking their milk. At this point I'm feeling a little self conscious to be in my plaid pajama bottoms, but oh well, my family was in their comfy clothes as well so I wasn't the only one not wearing jeans or a cowboy hat. Anyways, we go to the stable area where they have a table with sugar and a container of alcohol, we brought our own chocolate with us to mix in. My host brother prepared my concoction of sugar, chocolate, and alcohol (which when my host mom saw how much he put in she chuckled as it was a little more than is normal I think…more on that to come) and then he handed my mug to the keeper of the cows (I can't think of a better name for him) and he squeezed the milk from the cow right into my mug.

Now the taste was not all bad. It essentially was hot chocolate, or really lukewarm hot chocolate. The drink was very rich and sweet. The milk had a feint taste of cow attached to it which I suppose is unsurprising given it came directly from the cow. The flavor that I didn't care for the most though was the alcohol...which that is literally all they call it is alcohol, so I've no idea how strong that stuff is. I think my host brother put a little more than usual in (hence the chuckles from my host mom when she saw the amount) as there was definitely a very strong flavor of alcohol…and mixing my morning milk with alcohol is maybe not the most desirable thing to drink 10 minutes after waking up, I guess the Mexicans like it, but I'll have to work on acquiring that particularly craving. However, I did enjoy the entire experience and getting to taste my very first leche caliente!

I am glad my host family took me with them to participate in the Mexican tradition. We all had a great time and when we came back we washed down our milk with some good ole' pancakes (or hotcakes as they call them here) I would definitely go back to drink some more of this stuff, but maybe I'll add a little less alcohol next time :)

The pictures aren't great, but they give you a little bit of an idea of where I was...