Pineapple Agua Fresca

What's Agua Fresca?

Agua fresca means "fresh water" in English. It originated in Mexico and it's a popular refreshing drink sold often at street markets. It's made with blended fruit, vegetables, rice, or tea leaves with water, sugar, and often lime juice served over ice.

Some popular flavors include pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumber, or berries. It's very similar to your classic lemonade but with less sugar and lemon and more fruit flavors.

Agua fresca has more flavor than infused water but it's lighter and has less sugar than fruit juices you'd buy at the grocery store. Instead of boxed juices, it uses fresh fruit that gets mixed with water to make a flavorful but light and refreshing drink.

Ingredients

• Pineapple - Fresh pineapple will yield the best flavor but you can also use frozen pineapple if necessary. You'll have to add water to the blender though to help it blend or defrost it in the fridge overnight prior to making this agua fresca.
• Lime juice - Freshly squeezed lime juice is the best option and gives the drink so much flavor.
• Agave syrup - You can skip this if you don't want your drink too sweet. Sweetener is traditionally added but I usually skip it. Any sweetener works.
• Water - You can add as much or as little as you want. Fresh pineapple has a great strong flavor so even if you double the water for a big group, it's still going to be really flavorful!

Variations and Substitutions

You can make agua fresca with practically any summer fruit! Any juicy fruit works great. Try cucumber, watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberry, or peach!

The way it's made doesn't change, you just blend the fruit, strain it, and add water, sweetener, and ice.

You can also make this drink into more of a mocktail by topping it up with flavored soda or sparkling water. I like ones with tropical flavors and no added sugar.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Add chopped pineapple, lime juice, and agave syrup into a highspeed blender. Blend on high until smooth.

Strain the blended pineapple through a fine mesh strainer or a cheesecloth into a large measuring cup or a bowl. Use a spoon to help the process, it will take a few minutes to do this but I highly recommend not skipping it. The drink is much more pleasant to drink without the added fiber.

Pour the pineapple juice into a large jug and add 4 cups of water. You can add less or more water depending on how strong you want the pineapple flavor to be. I like adding equal amounts of pineapple just and water or slightly more water. I also usually add ice to it right away which also waters it down a bit.

Stir everything to mix well.

Serving and Storing

You can either add ice right into the jug with the agua fresca or you can add just a few ice cubes just to help it cool down and serve it over ice instead to prevent it from getting watered down too much.

Serve it garnished with lime slices or pineapple wedges on the glass rim to make it fancier.

You can also use frozen pineapple chunks instead of ice to cool down the drink without watering it down.

Store any leftovers in an airtight jar in the fridge for up to 3 days.

FAQs

More Pineapple Recipes

Pineapple is such a great summer fruit and it has a ton of uses, both sweet and savory! Pineapple on pizza anyone? If you're looking for more new ways to use pineapple, check out the four pineapple recipes below. The pico de gallo would be delicious in these Spicy Shrimp Tacos!

• Iced Pineapple Matcha Drink
• Pineapple Pico de Gallo
• Pineapple Popsicles
• Pineapple Jalapeno Margarita