Licuado de Mamey

Mamey is a fruit of the tropical south. It grows across the Yucatán peninsula, into Tabasco, Chiapas, and Veracruz, but in Mérida the licuado de mamey is so common at breakfast counters and afternoon loncherias that it might as well be the official drink of the city. The fruit comes off the trees of the Yucatán hot and the licuado comes out of the blender cold. That contrast is the entire pleasure.

The flesh of a ripe mamey is a color you cannot mistake for anything else: deep salmon, almost brick orange-red, dense, and creamy with a flavor that lands somewhere between sweet potato, pumpkin, and almond custard. Blended with cold whole milk and a little sugar, it becomes a licuado so thick you could eat it with a spoon. Some cooks add canela. Some add a splash of Mexican vanilla. The Mérida version I learned from a señora at a counter near the Mercado Lucas de Galvez was direct: mamey, milk, sugar, ice, a pinch of salt to wake the fruit up. Nothing else. No me vengas con atajos.

The whole licuado depends on the ripeness of the fruit. An unripe mamey is starchy and disappointing. A ripe one is custard. The señoras at the market will pick the right one for you and explain how to ripen the rest on your counter. If you cannot get fresh mamey where you live, the frozen pulp sold in Latin grocers is a fair compromise. Not the same fruit, but the same drink. Cada estado, su propia cocina, and this one belongs to the south.