It's a familiar and welcome sight at farmers' markets and street fairs around Southern California and other places with Latin American communities: the aguas frescas vendor with jars of cool, colorful beverages made from fruits and flowers like watermelon, tamarind, hibiscus, and lime. Do you have a favorite flavor? Have you made agua fresca at home?
Aguas frescas, or "fresh waters," are usually simple combinations of fresh fruit and water. Some incorporate flowers, grains, and seeds. A little sweetener might be added, but ripe ingredients like cantaloupe, pineapple, and strawberries often don't even need sugar. Refreshing rather than cloying, aguas frescas are the perfect thirst-quencher while strolling through a street fair, picnicking in the park, or just trying to beat the heat at home. Making agua fresca is also a great way to use seasonal fruits – alone, in combination with each other, or with herbs.
Here are some recipes for classic and inspired agua fresca flavors, but the basic concept of fruit + water + sweetener + ice is easy to play with on your own. Let us know if you have any ideas!
• Agua Fresca De Fruta (Basic Fruit Recipe), from BajaCalifornia.com
• Agua de Jamaica (Hibiscus), from 101 Cookbooks
• Agua de Sandia (Watermelon), from MexConnect
• Agua de Tamarindo (Tamarind), from Saveur
• Agua Fresca with Cucumber and Lime, from LA Times
• Pineapple Ginger, Cucumber Lemongrass, and Strawberry Thyme Aguas Frescas, from Matt Bites
Related: Recipe Review: Cucumber Ice Pops With Lime & Chile
(Images: Flickr members p200eric licensed under Creative Commons and finna dat licensed under Creative Commons)
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Tamarindo is my favorite. I had one once called Agua Celis in Torreon, Mexico once. It was the best - like a a clear soda but not sweet. 11 years later, have yet to find a similar drink
Yummy! And those jars are awesome. Where can you buy those anyhow?
I love them all. Even lemon and lime can be so much more delicious than regular lemonade because the skins are usually blended up as well lending tangy bits of flavorful rind in the drink.
Some Caribbeans make a drink similar to Jamaica called sorrel. Here's another fun example of where food and language intermingle and leave you scratching your head. Mexican jamaica (pr. ha-mayca) tastes like sorrel which comes from Jamaica (Ja-mayca). Word games aside, the Caribbean version is really, really good--it's spiced up with allspice and ginger and usually has a tiny bit of red wine in it to give it some body.
I love strawberry and watermelon. I have to be in the mood for tamarind, though.
Aw, where was this post last Friday when I was flinging together my own recipe?
I'm trying to make my own using the billions of frozen fruits in my office freezer, but haven't quite perfected it. Mine's more akin to watery strawberry than aqua fresca fresa. Maybe it's the lime juice?
Oooh, you missed horchata! This delicious rice/cinnamon agua-fresca is my favorite!!
I'm so glad that at my last visit to LA, I could drink some of that.
Tamarindo and Sandia! I usually go to the flea market for this and elote.
agree with Trovas. horchata! probably my favorite of all Mexican aguas frescas.
Also, not as common as the Mexican agua frescas (but definitely easy to find in Los Angeles) are the Salvadoran "aguas frescas" known as "fresco de [whatever the fruit name]" found in Salvadoran restaurants. My favorites: fresco de marañón (cashew fruit), fresco de chan (flavored lemonade with chia seeds) and fresco de ensalada (pineapple-flavored with medley of chopped fruits- oranges, apples, marañón, pineapple) and how can I forget! fresco de guanaba (guanabana)!
ooh. I want one of each now!
My favorite on a hot summer day is definitely jamaica. Even the color says summer.
I have never heard of this before! It sounds amazing though! I am taking a vacation to Mexico this summer. I wonder if they will have any while I am there. I am hoping to get a Mexico City limo to drive me around, I bet if I asked the driver, they would know where I could get these.