Agua Fresca

I've never been a fan of agua fresca; usually it's too watery and sweet for my taste.  However,  Bon Appetit had a few recipes this summer for agua fresca that looked good.  Check them out here. 

The spicy cucumber recipe is good and the watermelon-ginger recipe is terrific.  I modified them both, of course, cutting the sugar in the spicy cucumber recipe to a fraction, and omitting it altogether from the watermelon recipe.   I don't like the taste of sugar, and without it the other flavors came through beautifully to make a fresh and spicy drink. 

I made the watermelon-ginger recipe the first time for ladies' night on my deck with the thought of offering a non-alcoholic alternative to the champagne and wine we were drinking.  Let's just say it wasn't needed, despite being the perfect summer drink.  We had a lot of agua fresca left over so I decided to try it as a granita. I put it in the ice cream machine (which I had to dig out of the appliance graveyard.  Haven't used it in years.)  I'm not sure why the granita wasn't as flavorful as the agua fresca, but it wasn't as flavorful so we thawed it out and happily drank it as a cooler.

I like to experiment with new recipes.  Aaron often works with my ideas, refining them into new forms.  Yesterday I came home to find a pitcher of Sheralyn melon-ginger agua fresca in the refrigerator, made with lime and ginger like the watermelon recipe.  It was delicious, though a bit thick and slushy.  The Sheralyn melon isn't as sweet as a watermelon so couldn't take the water to thin it down.  To keep the flavor Aaron had to omit the water.  We sipped a bit and talked about recipe refinements.   Before telling how the agua fresca  ended up, I'll just say that we rarely drink cocktails (maybe once per year).  It's not a habit we need, what with the wine habit we already have.  That said, I had an bottle of white rum tucked in the back of the cupboard, mint growing in the herb garden, and a notion in mind.  I muddled mint into a bit of rum, and then mixed it with the melon-ginger agua fresca.  Oh yeah.

My advice: check out the Bon Appetit recipes, throw in a bit of mint and rum, and enjoy Sunday afternoon.