ripe guavas simmered, blended, and strained into a cooling, fragrant agua fresca sweetened and served over ice, the perfumed guava drink of the Mexican market and table
Origin: Mexico
From the journey of Guava.
The aguas frescas, the 'fresh waters' of Mexico, are light fruit drinks made by blending fruit, flower, or seed with water and a little sugar, sold from great barrel-shaped glass vitroleros on every market corner and street, and agua de guayaba is amongst the most fragrant of them all. Ripe guavas, with their heady musky perfume, are simmered briefly to soften, then blended and strained to leave behind the many hard seeds, and the smooth purée is let down with water and sweetened to make a pale, cooling, intensely aromatic drink. It is the everyday way to enjoy the guava in its homeland: not preserved into paste but caught fresh and fleeting, the scent of the ripe fruit carried in a glass of cold water. Served over ice through the warm months, agua de guayaba sits in the row of vitroleros beside the agua de jamaica, the horchata, and the agua de tamarindo, one of the classic flavours of the Mexican refresqueria, and the simplest and freshest expression of the guava in the country where it was first grown.
Pink-fleshed guavas give a rosy drink, white-fleshed a pale one; both are fragrant. The same purée, less diluted, is a base for paletas (ice lollies) and sorbet. Strain well to remove the hard seeds. Other aguas frescas (jamaica, tamarindo, horchata) are made the same way and traditionally served alongside.
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