Aguas frescas is a signature dish of Mexico; we have verified places to eat it in Mexico City. Glass urns called vitroleras lined up on market counters: pink jamaica, milky cinnamon-rice horchata, tart tamarindo, melon, alfalfa. Start with where to eat Aguas frescas in Mexico City.
Aguas frescas · Mexico City
Glass urns called vitroleras lined up on market counters: pink jamaica, milky cinnamon-rice horchata, tart tamarindo, melon, alfalfa. Sold by the cup at every market.
Aguas frescas trace to pre-Hispanic Mexico, where Aztecs in Tenochtitlan made cold drinks from cacao, fruit and seeds chilled with volcanic ice carried down from Popocatepetl. The colonial Spanish brought horchata de chufa from Valencia, which was reinvented in Mexico with rice. Jamaica (hibiscus) and tamarindo arrived through the colonial trade networks from West Africa and Asia. By the 19th century the vitrolera was a market fixture across Mexico City; today every market and most taquerias carry at least four aguas, refilled fresh daily, costing 25 to 45 pesos per glass.
Where to eat in Mexico City:
- Mercado de San Juan
- Mercado de Coyoacan
- Mercado Medellin
- Mercado de la Merced
- Mercado Roma
- Mercado de la Merced
Where to eat Aguas frescas in Mexico City: the editor picks