Fruit Ades (La Samaritana serves Aguas Frescas)

My mother had a strict rule at the ranch: We were allowed to have Coca Cola only once a week, a small bottle every Sunday.  The rest of the week she would make delicious refreshing agues frescas (fruit ades) of whatever fruit was available. Dried tamarind and hibiscus flowers were available year-round, and those were popular during early summer. But my favorite was an horchata made with cantaloupe seeds instead of rice, which is the more familiar and difficult-to-make version.

As you drive up to any small town in Mexico, there will be stands serving jewel-colored aguas frescas of watermelon, cantaloupe, orange, lime, papaya, vegetables such as cucumber and chayote, and plants like alfalfa (another favorite). The ingredients depend on the region and Oaxaca has the most varieties. The most surprising is agua de chilacayota, made with a vegetable that is similar to spaghetti squash in that the pulp separates into strings when cooked.  Sweetened with piloncillo (unrefined brown sugar), it could be served as a dessert.
There is a beautiful Lenten tradition that recalls the meeting of the Good Samaritan with Jesus Christ at the well. As it’s written in the Gospel of Saint John, Jesus quenched his thirst with freshly drawn water.  In Oaxaca, people commemorate this by setting up agua fresca stands all over the city and serving passersby’s for free.
Agua fresca has spread to the United States, where it is found mostly in Latino neighborhoods or in hipster bars, where they have become a favorite mixer for alcoholic drinks or served as a non-alcoholic option.

Soursop or Other Tropical Fruit Drink

Basic recipe from The Food and Life of Oaxaca

This recipe — so simple I’m almost embarrassed to use the word “recipe” — is meant as a general model for the many aguas frescas based on Oaxaca’s wealth of tropical fruits.  When I first started visiting the area, I could never have duplicated these heavenly thirst-quenchers at home in New York.  Now I can come close.  Today some though not all of the fruits for the renowned Oaxacan aguas frescas can be bought in the form of frozen pulp imported from several Latin American countries.  Look for these products in Latin and some southeast Asian markets, usually in 14-ounce plastic packets.  The quality, though not on a par with fresh produce eaten in the regions where it’s grown, is often better than that of the imported whole fruit.  Among the varieties available are guava, mango, papaya, passion fruit, pineapple, tamarind, and — one of my favorites — the seductive complex-flavored soursop, guanábana, a cherimoya relative that doesn’t seem to have been discovered yet in the U.S.  Experiment with any or all of these by the method given here, adding the sugar a little at a time until it is to your taste.  If the flavor seems a little flat, add a dash of lime juice.

The labels are unfortunately a little vague on most of the frozen fruit pulp packages, making it hard to tell whether you are getting sliced fruit or a purée.  The guanábana is usually sold sliced, as it would appear, in a typical Oaxacan agua fresca.  If you do not like the slippery texture of the fruit you can strain the juice through a medium-mesh sieve before beginning with the recipe (push down with a wooden spoon to extract as much juice as possible).  Or whirl in the blender to purée, though in that case it would technically be known as a preparado rather than agua fresca.

1 package (14 ounces) frozen guanábana (soursop) pulp, thawed

2 – 2 1/2 cups cold water, or as needed

3-4 tablespoons granulated sugar, or to taste

Place the guanábana pulp in a 1-quart measuring cup and fill up with water to the 1-quart mark.  Add the sugar 1 or 2 teaspoons at a time, tasting, until it achieves the desired sweetness.  Stir to dissolve well.  Chill thoroughly and serve over ice cubes.

Yield: Three 12-ounce servings (1 quart)