Watermelon Agua Fresca

Ah summer!  The days are long, the sun is blazing, and I am in my happy place:  Lounging outside on the porch with a cool drink in hand. 

Last year (much to my dismay at the expense) my husband bought the most giant cantilever umbrella you've ever seen to perch atop our side deck.  It is a behemoth and it weighs a ton but it is probably the single best purchase we've made in I don't know how many years.  We being a family of red heads obviously must be careful about sun exposure and, let's face it, this is the time of year that even the fiercest of sun worshipers could use a little shade from the midday sun.  Now that I am no longer making the commute into the city (to sit and freeze in an icebox all day), I find myself out here for hours upon hours almost every day and it makes me so very happy to be the benefactor of that extremely wise purchase.

Today though... today I'm almost giddy.  Because today as I site outside enjoying the summer breeze, typing away, I am sipping the most delicious, refreshing, summertime treat I had never experienced until recently.  Agua fresca!

Agua frescas (Spanish for "cool waters") are popular throughout Mexico and feature a combination of fruits, cereals, seeds, or flowers blended with sugar and ice to make refreshing non-alcoholic beverages.  My favorite local Mexican restaurant makes a delicious agua fresca called horchata which is actually a sweet, creamy fresca made from rice.  However I had never tried a fruity agua fresca until I stumbled upon a recipe posted on NYTimes Cooking that looked so delicious and simple I just had to give it a try.  If there was ever a beverage that embodied summer in its full, ripe, perfection it would be this!

This adapted version is simple perfection and will no doubt get quite a bit of air time in our house for the next month or two.  I'm excited to experiment with other fruits, herbs... and heck, I may even try throwing in a cucumber from the garden for good measure.

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