Atole de Zarzamora

the warm blackberry maize drink of highland Mexico: masa harina cooked to a smooth, thick atole with dark zarzamora, cinnamon, and sugar, drunk at dawn and on cold mornings

Origin: Mexico

From the journey of Blackberry.

Atole is one of the oldest foods of the Americas, the warm, thick maize drink that the peoples of Mesoamerica have drunk since long before the conquest: ground nixtamalised maize cooked with water to a smooth gruel, drunk at dawn to break the fast and at every festival and cold morning since. It is the ancestral use of maize in liquid form, named in the earliest Nahuatl records, and it survives today across Mexico in a hundred flavours. Atole de zarzamora, blackberry atole, is one of the loveliest, and it belongs above all to the temperate highlands where the wild bramble grows, the states of Michoacán and Mexico among them. The dark, tart zarzamora is crushed and strained and cooked into the maize base with a stick of canela and enough piloncillo or sugar to sweeten, giving a thick, comforting, deep-purple drink in which the earthy corn and the sharp berry meet, warmed through with cinnamon. It is drunk from a jarrito on a cold morning, or served alongside tamales, and it joins the two great Mexican foods, the maize of the land and the wild fruit of the hills, in a single cup.

Ingredients

  • 250 g blackberries (zarzamoras), fresh or frozen
  • 60 g masa harina (nixtamalised maize flour)
  • 1 litre water
  • 250 ml whole milk (optional, for a richer atole)
  • 1 stick canela (Mexican cinnamon)
  • 80 g piloncillo or brown sugar, or to taste

Method

  1. Blend the blackberries with about 250 ml of the water until smooth, then press through a fine sieve into a jug, discarding the seeds. Set the deep-purple juice aside.
  2. In a separate bowl, whisk the masa harina into another 250 ml of the water until completely smooth, with no lumps. This is the base that thickens the atole.
  3. Bring the remaining 500 ml water (and the milk, if using) to a simmer in a heavy pan with the cinnamon stick. Pour in the masa mixture in a steady stream, whisking constantly, and cook, still whisking, for 5 minutes until it thickens and loses its raw, floury taste.
  4. Stir in the strained blackberry juice and the piloncillo or sugar and cook gently for a further 5 to 8 minutes, stirring often, until the sugar has dissolved and the atole is smooth, thick, and a deep purple. Taste and adjust the sweetness.
  5. Remove the cinnamon stick and serve the atole hot, in mugs or in the traditional clay jarritos, ideally alongside tamales or sweet bread.

Notes

Masa harina, the fine flour made from nixtamalised maize (the same flour used for tortillas and tamales), is what makes this a true atole; ordinary cornflour can thicken the drink but lacks the characteristic toasted-corn flavour that defines it. Piloncillo, the unrefined Mexican cane sugar, gives the most authentic depth, but brown sugar is a fair substitute. The same method makes atole with any fruit: strawberry, guava, or pineapple in place of the blackberry.

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