Agua de Fresa y Mango - Mexican Strawberry & Mango Drink

         

Amongst the many food and drink delights that Amanda & myself came across during our trip to Mexico was these simple drinks made from fresh fruit, sugar & water, basically like a fruit punch. These were available with every meal at our hotel and were also available from street vendors wherever we went. They were so cold, nice and refreshing...love at first taste. They are called Aguas Frescas and are made from a myriad variety of fruit like papaya, guayaba (guava), pineapple, melon, watermelon, strawberries, mango, tunas (prickly pears), guanabana (soursop) but not only!! Two of the most famous ones in Mexico are Horchata and Agua de Jamaica. Horchata is a sweet rice drink made with soaked rice, sugar & cinnamon (it's absolutely gorgeous). Agua de Jamaica is made from dried Hibiscus flowers and has a very unique tangy taste. 

        Since you can basically make Aguas Frescas with any fruit, I decided to come up with a superdelicious drink made with fresh strawberries and ripe mango. Usually they are sweetened with white sugar but if you want you can replace the sugar with other natural sweeteners like honey, maple syrup or agave nectar (which has a low GI). One tip about making these kind of drinks is that the more ripe the fruit is the sweeter the drink will be and the less sugar you need to add. In this particular drink I used honey and I put about 3 tablespoons, but again, it's all up to how sweet you like it. Just keep in mind that liquid sweeteners like the ones I mentioned above are sweeter than sugar so you need to use less!!! For a 2 litre jugful you will need...

• 400g fresh strawberries, hulled
• Flesh of 1 ripe mango
• 6 cups (1.5 litres cold water)
• ½ cup (115g) granulated sugar  or ¼ cup (4 tablespoons honey
• 24 ice cubes

How to...

1. Add all the ingredients except the ice in a large blender and blend until you get a smooth consistency.
2. Pass through a sieve (to eliminate any strawberry seed) into a jug, add the ice cubes and put into the fridge to chill.
3. Serve chilled.

Enjoy!!

R&A