Agua Fresca 3. Naranjada
Here’s an incredibly simple agua fresca, naranjada.
Yes, it’s simply orange juice and water. In Mexico, I have the impression that it is much commoner in restaurants than at home.
In fact, naranjada’s a very nice option in Mexican restaurants if you don’t want alcohol or a commercial soft drink. You can ask for it even when it is not on the menu. Usually the kitchen can come up with it for you.
Naranjada must be made with fresh-squeezed juice. Real fresh-squeezed juice that it. So-called fresh-squeezed from the supermarket simply doesn’t cut it. And to my taste fizzy mineral water is better than flat. It gives a needed bit of zip.
Orange squash! In the Far East that’s fresh squeezed orange juice or lemon juice with sparkling water. The lemon squash does get sweetened.
And in Italy: it’s spremuta, which is just fresh squeezed orange juice, but you can get it at the highway Autogrills. Can you imagine getting fresh squeezed orange juice on the New Jersey Turnpike??
Yes, there are lots of overlaps of agua fresca with soft drinks in other parts of the world. One of the things I want to do is explore them in this multi-part series.
I cannot imagine why it’s so hard to get fresh-squeezed juice in the US. We were in Riverside, California once, heart of the orange groves, and not a drop of fresh juice to drink was to be had anywhere. There are machines that squeeze oranges so it’s not the labor.
Interesting that orange squash means fresh squeezed in the Far East. In England when I was growing up it meant sweetened concentrate in a bottle.
One of the greatest joys of living in Mexico is the preponderance of fresh fruits and juices. Here in Irapuato you can find ladies with an orange squeezer on many street corners in the morning selling fresh squeezed orange juice. One of the local customs is breaking quail eggs into the orange juice. The quail eggs are called “huevos de cordoniz”. They are supposed to be good for a hangover (crudo). You ask the lady to add from one to five little eggs depending upon the size of your “crudo”. You can buy a giant cast aluminum orange squeezer for the equivalent of about 25 U.S. dollars. I have one on my kitchen counter. I am never without fresh squeezed orange juice. When I am in a restaurant I order either a “naranjada” or a “limonada”. A naranjada is generally orange juice mixed with carbonated water (agua mineral) and grenadine (granadina). A limonada is the same thing but with lime juice instead of orange juice. Just plain orange juice is “jugo de naranja” and just plain lime juice and water is “agua de limón”.