Aguas Frescas: Mexican Thirst-Quenchers

In the hot summertime, Mexicans reach for a fragrant, ripe fruit juice, freshly dissolved in a blender with ice water to quench the thirst and hydrate the body. Why consume outrageously sugary soft drinks by the gallons, when you can just as easily get hooked on the real thing? Natural fruit with nutrients such as Vitamin C and E and antioxidants you can find in fruits such as mangos, canteloupe, and papayas, to mention a few?

In Mexico these natural, fresh fruit juices known as aguas frescas (“fresh waters”) are found in open-air markets in gigantic transparent glass jugs, lined up and ready to be ladled into a glass.

Aguas frescas are drunk from the spring until the early fall and can be found in every region of Mexico as well as in the US wherever Mexican culture abounds. They are not exactly smoothies because water and a small amount of sugar is added to the fruit pulp, and they are not just made from fruit, but also from seeds such as tamarindo or chia (a kind of sage grown by the Aztecs). An agua fresca can be made from flowers as well, such as the one called jamaica, made from hibiscus flowers. One of my favorites is horchata, made from rice, originating in Spain, quite possibly via the moorish occupation.

Some great places to find agua frescas:

• Jugos Acapulco – Santa Ana and Costa Mesa, CA
• Paradise Aguas Frescas – Tucson, AZ
• Taqueria Jalisco – Clovis, NM

If you can’t find aguas frescas near you, try making them yourself. To make any basic agua fresca, start out with a very ripe and sugary cantaloupe, or watermelon, mango, or pineapple, for example, and blend 1 part fruit and 2-3 parts water. Even with water added, the essence of the fruit in all its glory refreshes the palate. Strain or don’t strain, and add sugar to taste. Squeeze limes for a slight citrus punch to the agua fresca and serve cold in icy-frosted glasses.

Here are a few other recipes:

Tepache
Jamaica and Chia

¡Salud!

This article originally appeared on The Menuism Blog here:  Aguas Frescas: Mexican Thirst-Quenchers.

Lime Leaf Agua Fresca

Dear Reader:

We hope you are standing by waiting faithfully, patiently, and in utter suspense for the latest entry to our blog. Which Gilda is to blame for the recent lapse? Well, La Ahijada was off to Yale on a writing seminar. And as for me, the end of the school year is a big change of gears. I was frantically turning in grades and focused on the final, pesky details involved in taking a group of active 14 year olds to a small, historic town in Mexico.

The two weeks in Mexico are now a self-contented blur. The students basically took over the town. They made extraordinary leaps in their knowledge of Spanish, made meaningful friendships, played soccer, and performed community service. Also, these boys tried traditional Mexican food and (gasp!) survived for two weeks without soft drinks. I put down the initial near insurrection by simply putting on my ear plugs and then plying them with some of the aguas frescas I remembered from my childhood, so good, so healthy, so icy-cold on a hot day. The whining for Cokes tapered off to barely audible murmurs by the end of the trip as the boys had gone through gallons of agua de jamaica, horchata, hoja de limón, agua de sandía, guanábana, tamarindo, or guayaba. I even heard some boys talking about how limonada made with real limes is just incomparable to anything out of a bottle or can.
I hope you find this unusual agua as delicious as I have found it. It has the green freshness of the leaf of the lime tree. If you have access to lemon leaves, rather than lime leaves, you'll be able to make an equally delicious agua. Perhaps you don't have access to citrus leaves at all, so as a last resort, you might look for a store or market that sells limes or lemons with the leaves still attached.

Lime Leaf Agua Fresca

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Recipe Type: Beverage

Author: Gilda Valdez Carbonaro

Prep time: 10 mins

Total time: 10 mins

Serves: 6

This is a refreshing summer drink you can make if you have access to fresh lime or lemon leaves.

Ingredients

• About 25 lime leaves without stems


• 3/4 cup sugar


• 10 leaves of mint for garnish in each glass


• juice of two limes or one orange


• 8 cups water

Instructions

1. Using a blender, blend the lime leaves in 2 of the cups of water and the sugar


2. With a strainer, pour into a pitcher and add the other 6 cups of water


3. Adjust for sugar, and squeeze the 2 limes or the one orange


4. Stir, add ice and pour into glasses garnished with sprig of mint.

Más Aguas Naturales

Agua de Jamaica (hibiscus flower) is another favorite childhood drink. My earliest memory is drinking it at an elementary school fair with my friends.  More recently, I discovered Chia Fresca (at Casa Carmen in San Miguel de Allende), a thirst-quenching drink rich in omega-3 fatty acids.  Chia, from the nahuatl word chian (meaning oily), is an ancient seed and was a main staple in diets of the Aztecs and Mayans.

Aguas Naturales

Recipe Type: Beverage, Bebida

Author: Gilda Valdez Carbonaro

Prep time: 20 mins

Total time: 20 mins

Ingredients

• Agua de Jamaica


• 1 cup of hibiscus flowers


• 1 gallon water


• Sugar to taste


• Chia Fresca


• 1 cup chia seeds


• 1 gallon water


• 5 limes


• Sugar to taste

Instructions

Agua de Jamaica

1. When water comes to a boil, turn it off, add the hibiscus flowers, and let them steep for about 15 minutes.


2. Strain, squeeze the water out of the calyces (sepals) of the hibiscus.


3. Add sugar to taste and serve chilled with ice.

Chia Fresca

1. Soak chia seeds in water overnight.


2. In the morning add squeezed limes and sugar to taste.


3. Serve chilled.

Notes

Chia is a nahuatl word, chian, meaning oily.

Chia seeds are a source of Omega 3.

Got Tepache?

There are few things that can quench your thirst the way tepache does. I know. I grew up in a semi-arid place where temperatures could reach 100 degrees in early March. So, trust me, I know hot. A frosty glass of amber colored, tepache was one of my mother's favorite thirst quenchers. Soft drinks were not an option for us; she never bought them, and probably not because she found them unhealthy, but, rather, because we couldn't afford them.  So, I grew up addicted to a variety of aguas naturales and to this very particular summer cooler: tepache.

The word tepache apparently comes from the nahuatl, tepiatl, which means fermented corn. Fermented pineapple rind is definitely the child-friendly version, over the corn one. And, naturally, no beer was added to ours, unlike the Mexican version, although I'm certain everyone makes it slightly different. Until she passed away in February 2010, I took it for granted that I could get on the phone and ask my mother to remind me how she made something. Today I had to remember, on my own, how she made tepache. I think I got it right.

Tepache

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Recipe Type: Beverage, Bebida

Author: Gilda Valdez Carbonaro

Prep time: 20 mins

Total time: 20 mins

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 4 or 5 cones of piloncillo or dark brown sugar


• 1 ½ gallons water


• Rinds from 1 ripe pineapple


• 1 cinnamon stick


• 2 oranges cut in half


• 3 cloves

Instructions

1. Place all the ingredients in the water.


2. Cover and let sit for 2 to 3 days.


3. When it begins to bubble, it is ready.


4. Strain and adjust the taste if you like it sweeter.


5. Serve chilled with ice.