Colonche is an alcoholic red coloured drink from Mexico prepared with tuna, the fruits of "nopal" (Opuntia cacti), especially with tuna cardona, the fruits of Opuntia streptacantha.
It is a sweet, fizzy beverage. For preparation, the cactus fruits are peeled and crushed to obtain the juice, which is boiled for 2–3 hours. After cooling, the juice is allowed to ferment for a few days. Sometimes old colonche is added as a starter. Another possible starter is "tibicos". Tibicos are gelatinous masses of yeasts and bacteria, grown in water with brown sugar.[1]
In 2003, Teófilo Herrera Suárez, a Mexican mycologist, published a book titled Más allá del pulque y el tepache (Beyond Pulque and Tepache), in which he writes about traditional Mexican alcoholic beverages such as "pozol", "tesgüino" and "colonche".[3]
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