Well, the temperature is supposed to reach 104 degrees this week. And not just for one day, apparently.
So here’s a way to, as they say, beat the heat. Order the Guava Agua Fresca at Las Tortugas Deli Mexicana.
When I visited the restaurant the other day, Jonathan Magallanes, who is chef, manager, front-of-the-house man, and just about everything else, asked me what I wanted to drink. Then he offered me a glass of their fresh guava juice.
It’s one of the best things I’ve ever tasted. It’s extraordinary. Just the right amount of sweetness. Refreshing. All the good adjectives.
And this isn’t something you’re going to find everywhere.
I asked Magallanes how he happened to begin selling Guava Agua Fresca.
“One day randomly I’m at Walmart,” he says. “Right? And I’m just cruising down the produce aisle, whatever. But I smell something. I’m like, ‘What’s that smell? I know that smell.’ And I never smell it. Never. ‘That’s guava.’ And I’ve known this ‘cause we’ve traveled and gone to Belize, and the Yucatan, and Guatemala. Down there where they have these gorgeous, little yellow guavas.”
He tasted the yellow guava in drinks or desserts while traveling. “In Mexico, all these markets that are selling fresh fruit, guava is this one-of-a-kind scent. It’s super fragrant. Sweet and tropical. Sort of has it all. Total package fruit.”
Magallanes found the store’s guava display. “Walmart had this little clamshell with six guava. They were a little past ripe, in my opinion. But that fragrance had overtaken the whole produce section.
“I took them anyway and cut them and one was great, it was delicious. And so I looked on the little clamshell (to see) where they were from. Of course, they were imported.”
He then went to the local importer and bought them in bulk. “And they were amazing. ‘Cause they were the little yellow ones. It’s not the pink one.”
Yellow ones are different, Magallanes says. “The skin is thin enough and the seed is small enough you can juice the whole fruit.
“The seed has a certain type of guava flavor. So does the skin. And the flesh. So, you get this full spectrum of guava assault. It’s sweet the way the fruit is. It’s not sweeter than that.”
He brought them back to the restaurant and began serving the guava juice with ice and a touch of lime.
“When it’s super really ripe, it’s almost frothy or creamy. Creamy almost the way a melon is sort of creamy. Fruit that’s at peak ripeness has this luxurious quality.”
He began selling Guava Agua Fresca about a year and a half ago. “As soon as I found it in bulk and the quality was good enough.”
And, Magallanes says, “Now it’s the special juice all the time.”
Las Tortugas Deli Mexicana is at 215 South Germantown Road in Germantown, Tennessee; (901) 751-1200
