[xtopher]

I realize I'm joining this discussion a couple years too late, but this is my first post to the boards, so I thought I'd chime in with something I know a little bit about.

I would definitely not recommend canned pulque to anybody, since part of what makes pulque so strange (and delicious, in my opinion) is the fact that it normally isn't done fermenting when you drink it. The proprietors of the pulquería I frequent in Mexico City have claimed that it actually continues to ferment in your stomach, which a lot of people experience as a kind of bloating similar to the feeling I get when I drink beer. It's supposed to be good for digestion, as well as loaded with vitamins, but I haven't noticed any dramatic digestive effects either way.

The general consensus seems to be that pulque should be consumed within one or two days of its production, so I can't imagine that canned pulque would compare with the real thing, which I find quite pleasant to drink.

For anyone visiting Mexico City, fresh pulque is available in one of the corner stalls in Plaza Garibaldi, and as of 2009 it's also available at a hip, divey bar in La Roma, called Mellizo Lonch (on Álvaro Obregón near the intersection with Tonalá).

And for the record, the Mexica didn't invent pulque to get buzzed -- it was a ceremonial drink associated with religious communion with spirits and divinities, similar to chicha in the Andes.