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Agua de fresa is an incredibly refreshing recipe made from strawberries, water, and a touch of sweetener. It’s super easy to put together, leaving you with the perfect summer drink full of berry-licious flavors!
Table of Contents
📖 About
This strawberry agua fresca ticks all the boxes for summer. It’s sweet, juicy, and can easily be made with your favorite spirit for a tasty cocktail!
What is it?
Aguas frescas are a category of drinks popular in Mexico. You can find them on virtually every street corner, in most restaurants, and especially in taquerías (places that sell tacos).
Agua fresca just means “fresh water” in English. They are made by mixing different ingredients like fruits, grains, or flowers together with water and sweetener.
This strawberry agua fresca is extremely easy to make. All you need is ripe strawberries, water, and your go-to sweetener!
The end results will vary slightly from recipe to recipe, but you should end up with a light and refreshing strawberry drink.
We tend to make ours on the lighter side (better on the wallet and the waist). But, this will totally depend on your taste preferences. That’s the beauty of aguas frescas!
History
We love learning about the history of traditional recipes we recreate as a way to pay homage to the one who came before us. It’s intriguing to see how certain techniques begin, develop, and change over time due to various influences.
Aguas frescas have a long history dating back to the Aztec civilization. Before Mexico City became what it is now, it was known as Tenochtitlán. This central location was home to a large market for surrounding villages to buy food and supplies.
On their journey to Tenochtitlán, travelers would collect berries and muddle them with spring water to create a hydrating and tasty drink for their trip.
Fast forward to the present day — there are now grocery stores down the street, blenders, and all kinds of fruit at our fingertips to make this drink even easier to make.
Serving
We love to serve agua de fresa in a glass full of ice for the perfect way to cool off after a day in the sun.
If you want to serve a healthier drink, try using stevia or monk fruit in place of traditional sweeteners like sugar and agave.
To make a grown-up version, mix this agua fresca with ice, lime, and a bit of rum for a quick and easy strawberry daiquiri.
Whatever your plans are for this refreshing strawberry drink, rest assured it’s vegan, gluten-free, and can be easily made sugar-free!
🍲 Key ingredients
For a complete ingredient list and step-by-step guide, scroll down to our recipe card.
Strawberries
Taste: this bright red, sweet, and juicy fruit is the perfect choice for a summer drink. With such an intense natural sweetness, you don’t need to add too much extra sweetener (if any at all).
Health: strawberries are a great source of vitamin B9 (also known as folate), which is essential for the growth and function of the cells in your body. Folate is also required during pregnancy to help prevent brain and spinal cord defects in the growing fetus.
Fun fact: strawberries can be produced by planting a berry in the ground, but it’s more common for them to reproduce via runners.
Sweetener
Taste: you can definitely use cane sugar in this recipe, but we often find ourselves reaching for Stevia as the preferred sweetener for our aguas frescas.
Health: although we think you should keep sugar consumption to a minimum, we definitely don’t vilify it. Just like anything, you can always have too much of a good thing. But if this strawberry drink steers you away from straight-up fruit juice or soda, then it’s an improvement!
🔪 Instructions
If you have questions about this strawberry agua fresca recipe, don’t forget to check out our FAQ section at the bottom of this post.
Step 1: rinse the strawberries and cut off the green tops. You can chop them, or just throw them directly into your blender. Then, add the water and sweetener of your choosing like cane sugar, agave, stevia, etc. Add in a squeeze of lime juice at this point if you are using it.
Step 2: blend the mixture on high until no chunks remain. Taste and adjust the sweetener or water to your preferences, then strain your agua fresca into a bowl, jar, or pitcher.
Note: straining the mixture is not totally necessary, but it will get rid of some of the strawberry seeds! We’ll leave this step up to you.
Step 3: transfer the pitcher to your fridge to chill for a few hours, or serve your strawberry agua fresca immediately over ice with mint sprigs, fresh basil, lime, or lemon wedges. Happy drinking!
🌡️ Storage
This strawberry agua fresca is worth keeping on hand, so follow these tips to keep it as fresh as possible!
Fridge
Keep this delicious strawberry drink in a mason jar or pitcher for up to 2-3 days in the fridge. We find glass containers preserve the taste best, but feel free to use whatever container you have!
Freezer
Your strawberry water will store for up to 1 year in the freezer as long as you use freezer-safe containers. There may be a slight change in taste and texture when thawed, but that’s to be expected. We usually let ours thaw overnight in the fridge, and give it a quick blend before serving.
💭 Pro tips
Time to share our tips and tricks we learned while creating this strawberry agua fresca for you:
- Make it sugar-free. We typically reach for stevia or monk fruit to make this drink lower in calories.
- Add more flavors. Try adding lime, basil, peach, cucumber, or lemon to your strawberry water to switch things up!
- Use frozen berries. If strawberries aren’t in season where you are, try using frozen berries in their place.
- Make it bubbly. Try adding carbonated water to your strawberry drink for an extra fancy version.
🍴 Tasting notes
We love making a batch of strawberry water to cool off in the summer heat, and we know you will too. It’s:
- Sweet
- Refreshing
- Light
- Juicy
- Summery
If you try this agua de fresa recipe, please rate it and leave us a comment below! Want to stay up-to-date with new recipes? Subscribe to our newsletter or connect with Broke Bank Vegan on social media. Happy eating!
Agua de Fresa
Equipment
- Blender
- Fine mesh strainer
- Pitcher or large jar
Ingredients
- 2 cups strawberries ($1.83)
- 4-5 cups water ($0.01)
- ⅓ cup cane sugar or agave ($0.02)
Mix-ins optional
- Ice
- Stevia in place of sugar
- Lime wedges
- Mint sprigs
Instructions
- First, rinse the strawberries and cut off the green tops. Add the strawberries to a blender with water and sweetener of choice (cane sugar, agave, stevia, etc.). Add in a squeeze of lime juice at this point if you are using it.
- Blend on high until no chunks remain and the mixture is smooth. Taste and adjust the sweetener or water to your preferences, then strain the mixture into a bowl, jar, or pitcher to remove some seeds.
- Transfer to your fridge to chill for a few hours, or serve your agua de fresa immediately over ice with mint sprigs, fresh basil, lime, or lemon wedges. Happy drinking!
Video
Notes
- Stevia makes a great replacement if you want a healthier option. For reference, 2 tablespoons of cane sugar are equal to 1 typical packet of powdered stevia (or an 8:1 ratio).
- Optional ingredients are not reflected in the price or calories of our recipes.
- We calculate nutritional information for our recipes with Cronometer.
- Recipe cost calculations are based on ingredients local to us and may vary from recipe-to-recipe.
- All prices are in USD.
Nutrition
♻️ Similar recipes
For more thirst-quenching aguas frescas and fruit juices, check out our:
- Agua de piña for a sweet, fruity, and tropical recipe made with fresh pineapple.
- Agua de tamarindo if you’re on the hunt for a uniquely flavored drink made with one of the most popular ingredients in Mexico.
- Agua de sandia because nothing screams summer more than a sweet, juicy watermelon drink.
- Agua de Jamaica for a hibiscus iced tea that is not only delicious, but also great for your blood pressure!
- Strawberry juice to try a similar strawberry-flavored drink made with 100% fruit!
💬 FAQ
Yes, you can absolutely use frozen strawberries. Allow them to thaw in your fridge and use an equal portion to fresh berries.
Yes, we would consider strawberry water healthy. To make it even healthier, make sure to swap out the sugar for stevia or monk fruit (or leave sweeteners out altogether).
You do not have to chill your agua fresca before serving it. If your strawberries and water are at room temperature, serve this drink over ice.
