A quick look at: Pulque in Mesoamerica.
“In daily life and ceremonies, pulque (a fermented cactus drink) was poured from clay pots or containers which had the image of the god with an elegant bi-conical cup. The affect of drunkenness can be seen in this anthropomorphic sculpture where the eyes are represented with red shells." (NMOA)
Used as an intoxicating ritual sacred drink, pulque was consumed by priests, scattered on the ground, and was offered to the gods to drink. It appears to have also been associated with some forms of sacrifice, a sculpture at El Tajín shows a figure conducting a bloodletting-sacrifice, and adding his blood to the pulque. The intoxication it caused helped people in experiencing an altered state of being, which was done to aid their communication with the supernatural.
The use of pulque also appears to have been used in the Day of the Dead festivities. Bernardino de Sahagún (1499-1590), sometimes referred to as the “first anthropologist”, spent over 50 years studying Aztec beliefs, culture and history. He conducted interviews with Aztec elders and other survivors of the war against Tenochtitlan. The following section from one of his accounts:
They also used to place the image of the dead on those grass wreaths. Then at dawn they put these images in their shrines, on top of beds or reed mace, sedge, or rush. Once the images were placed there, they offered them food, tamales, and gruel, or a stew made of chicken or dog’s meat. […] And the rich sang and drank pulque in honor of these gods and their dead, while the poor offered them only food. (via: Davíd Carrasco’s Religions of Mesoamerica: Second Edition)
Artifact shown courtesy & currently located at the National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico. Photo taken by Travis S.