Hey all: Here’s a recent column of mine that ran in The Orange County Register’s print edition. It can’t be found online, so here it is. Thanks for reading!

Summer in a sip
Not quite as sweet as fruit juice and more refreshing than lemonade, agua fresca is a tried-and-true summertime sipper.

By CYNTHIA FUREY
Special to the Register

My first memory of agua fresca was at a Sea World, where the large, 10-gallon-sized glass pitchers gleamed like jewels in the sun, with every color of the rainbow. It was hard to pick one.

If it makes sense, you still want to taste the water, which is like the refreshing agent in the drink. You will capture the essence of the fruit with just a tad of sugar, so that the drink doesn’t resemble KoolAid and instead is refreshing, almost feeling like you’re doing something good.

The following recipes are simple, all you will need is a 2-quart pitcher, a strainer and a blender. You can easily swap out different herbs for each drink as well. Serve immediately, as the pureed fruit will settle at the bottom. Recipes can easily be doubled, but may have to be done in batches depending on the size of your blender.

They are a little light for adding alcohol, but may benefit from a splash of Prosecco or sparkling wine. The key is to not overdo it, because the agua fresca is such a subtle taste, you run the risk of overpowering it. The addition of lime juice in each recipe perks it up just a bit. (Click on “Read the rest of this entry” for recipes.)

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