Balché

Balché is a mildly intoxicating beverage common among ancient and indigenous cultures in areas of what are now Mexico and upper Central America. Today, the drink is still common among the Yucatec Maya, and is made from the bark of a leguminous tree (Lonchocarpus violaceus), which is soaked in honey and water, and fermented. A closely related beverage, made from honey produced from the nectar of a species of morning glory (Turbina corymbosa), was called xtabentún.

Manufacturing

The peoples of Mesoamerica have long held the balché tree and their mysterious beverage sacred. Because the drink had strong religious significance to the Maya, the Spaniards banned the beverage in an attempt to convert them to Christianity. The ban was observed until a Maya named Chi convinced the Spaniards that balché had important health benefits and that many Maya were dying as a result of the prohibition. The Spaniards then lifted their ban, and balché rituals resumed. . . .
The Lacandon. . . believe that the gods gave balché rituals to them, and that because the gods themselves first became inebriated by the beverage, the people from then on had a duty to imitate the inebriation of the gods and to experience that same exhilaration. The Lacandon chant incantations while preparing the balché. . . First, the brewer offers his drink to the gods; then, later, the people partake of it, usually just before dawn. The Lacandon call the balché brewer "Lord of the Balché" and they identify him with Bohr or Bol, the god of inebriation.

Balch

Balch is a surname that may apply to:

Balch (crater)

Balch is a crater on Venus at latitude 29.9, longitude 282.9 in Devana Chasma, Central Beta Regio. It is 40 km in diameter and named after Emily Balch, though it was originally designated Somerville crater. This crater is one of the few examples of tectonically modified craters seen on Venus. The absence of such craters indicates a possible cessation of tectonic deformation on Venus at some point in history.