Photos and recipe by the inimiatable cpbeacom!

Loquat tepache. Turned out yummy. And overcarbonated. The loquat adds a nice acidity like a sour beer. It’s a normal tepache recipe but with half the pineapple skin and core replaced with a roughly equal volume of pitted loquats.

Here’s the process: melt a cone of piloncillo in a cup or so of water on the stove. Just heat it and stir it until dissolved. You could grate it to speed things up but then you have to wash a grater. Set aside to chill. Cut up a pineapple, and eat the flesh. Put half the skin and core into a half gallon jar. Add a cinnamon stick. Add a roughly equal volume of pitted loquats. Maybe 2-3 dozen. I just rip them in half and toss the seeds. The seeds would give a nice almond extract flavor if you left them but also have varying unknown levels of cyanide. Some folk eat em, but some folk sniff gasoline too. Pour the cooled sugar water in the jar and then enough water to get to the shoulder of the jar. Cover the jar with cloth and a rubber band, or if you’re fancy like me, an airlock lid.

Taste it once a day including right now. You’ll know when it’s ready when it goes from just tasting overly sweet to tasting yummy and balanced. In warm weather like now, it will probably be ready in 3 days or 4. While you’re tasting push anything sticking up, back down. Once it seems ready, strain it. It makes a little over a quart, or 3 – 12oz bottles.

Then either drink it all, or put it in the fridge, or bottle it. Left at room temp, it will start to taste funky and sour, as wild bacteria overpower the wild yeast. In the fridge it should be good for 2 or 3 days. Bottle it if you have the equipment and it will carbonate in the bottle. I left it about 3 more days at room temp in the bottle and then in the fridge about a week. Obviously, it’s a little overcarbonated. It’s also noticeably drier than before as it kept fermenting. When I bottled it, it was still a little sweet, but it was starting to taste funky so I went with it.

He adds: Oh yeah, I was out of piloncillo cones, so I just used a cup of sugar and a 1/4 cup of molasses.

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Loquats are an ideal fruit for margaritas; sour with just a hint of sweetness, they counterbalance any tequila nicely and play well with bright flavors like orange and lime. As a bonus, slightly underripe loquats, with their signature tang, work perfectly well in this tantalizing, slightly brown cocktail.

You will need:

1.5-2 cups of loquat flesh (from about 1 pound of whole loquats; any size will work, but larger fruits are easier to seed and peel)

4 ounces of tequila, whatever kind you prefer

2 ounces of triple sec or Cointreau

The juice of two medium-sized limes

2 tablespoons of sweetener, such as agave nectar, honey, or simple syrup

2 cups of ice

A plate with a thin layer of kosher salt (optional)

Peel and seed your loquats. It’s okay if you leave some of the peels on, but the seeds are slightly toxic, so be sure to remove all of those.

Pour all ingredients (except salt) in a blender.

Blend on a medium-high setting until the mixture is and cold and smooth.

If you like a salted rim, run the spent limes along the rims of two glasses and dip the glasses in the salt. Serve and enjoy.

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