“Agua Fresca” drinks origionated in Mexico. The name translates roughly to “cool water” or “fresh water”. This refreshing drink is made from blending fruit with drinking water and adding in lime juice and a touch of sweetener. The result is more than flavored water but less than straight fruit juice.

Agua frescas can be made from more than just fruit. Recipes for various cereals and flowers can be found. I’m focusing mainly on fruit, specifically watermelon. Sometimes those melon vines go crazy and a gnome can only eat so much melon at a time! The recipe below focuses on watermelon because we don’t grow any other melons (Mr. Gnome absolutely hates cantaloupe and won’t even tolerate it in the house or garden). A basic recipe follows in case you have an over-abundance of another fruit.

You can use your preferred sweetener as a substitute for the honey in the recipe below. Granular sugars can take a long time to dissolve so you may want to make them into a simple syrup first. Start with ripe, sweet fruit and you can adjust the sweetener to your taste.

Make this into a cocktail by adding tequila or vodka to taste.

Below is the base recipe. Try using berries, apples or citrus. How about cucumbers or celery? Steep hibiscus flowers in your water before adding the fruit? Except for berries, peel and remove the seeds from fruits before blending. Most fruit blends will be better strained before serving, especially the berries with all those little seeds.