Have you sunk your teeth into a Parvin nubbin? Is Nam Doc Mai too creamy for your palate, or do you prefer it to the fibrous sweetness of a hefty Tommy Atkins? Do you scream for Ice Cream, or roll your eyes at a Southern Blush? Or … are these questions like a foreign language to you? Here’s a simple translation: Mango season is upon us.
The middle of summer, as anyone who grew up in South Florida knowJaroschy,s too well, is a time when the fruit comes sweet, fast, and in volume. People start bringing cardboard boxes to the office or setting up pyramids at the foot of the driveway with signs: FREE MANGOES. TAKE ONE. PLEASE. For those allergic to them (the peel and sap contains small quantities of urushiol, the same chemical that makes poison ivy itchy), we can only offer condolences. For the eager Biscayne tippler, it’s a cause for celebration.
“Mango, especially in-season fresh mango, is an incredible and versatile ingredient for a huge range of cocktails,” says Gui Jaroschy, a founder of Unfiltered Hospitality, a Miami-based cocktail consultancy and bar management mind trust. “We're lucky as Miamians to have access to a ton of it throughout the early summer months. If you have a tree in your backyard (or a neighbor's tree in nabbing distance), the only issue you run into is that you spend 10 months waiting for mango season to come and the next two months trying to keep from drowning in mangoes.”
(Gui Jaroschy)
Gui Jaroschy, one of the founders of Unfiltered Hospitality, stretches mango season through the year with mango puree and mango shrub, building blocks of marvelous mixed drinks.
His solution is to start with a basic building block: “I tend to make cocktails that find a way to spread the love for as long as possible. I fill up my freezer with a homemade mango puree that is consistent and easy to use in frozen mango margaritas or shaken mango cocktails to get me through fall and beyond.”
He recommends a puree made from a pound of seeded, skinned mango cut into chunks and blended with a cup of water, half a cup of sugar, and half an ounce of lime juice. It’ll keep for a year in the freezer.
Jaroschy is also fond of using mangoes as the key ingredient in a shrub, an old-time concoction that uses vinegar and sugar to extend the shelf-life of any fresh fruit.
“The vinegar and sugar preserve the produce and provide the nice balance of acidity and sweetness that we like in cocktails,” he says. “Mango shrubs work really well because the floral, sweet taste of mangoes goes great with spicy flavors like peppers or herbs like cilantro, basil, lemongrass, and so on. It gives you lots of options to make delicious and complex cocktail variations with one long-lasting, easy-to-make ingredient.”
Mango Shrub
12 oz. fresh mango (seeded, skinned, and cut in chunks)
12 oz. water
6 oz rice wine or champagne vinegar (“Everything except distilled white vinegar will work,” says Jaroschy.)
12 oz. white sugar
Optional:
.5 cup fresh herbs, chopped herbs (cilantro, basil, mint)
or
2 jalapeños, chopped
or
4 cinnamon sticks, broken up. (“Get creative with your favorite flavors,” Jaroschy says.)
Add mango – and herbs or spices, if desired – to a large, non-reactive container (glass pickling jar or pitcher, or food-safe bucket). Lightly muddle with a potato masher or the back of a wooden spoon. Combine water, sugar, and vinegar in the container with the mango. Stir until sugar is mostly dissolved. Cover and let stand at least three days and up to a week, stirring daily. Strain out solids and place finished shrub in a clean container. Keeps refrigerated for up to three months.
(Courtesy of SHOKUDO)
A goat-milk clarification gives the Mango Dade at Shokudo a uniquely velvety texture.
Mango Mission
Once armed with either of these building blocks, it’s easy to start experimenting at home, making anything from a rum-infused mango smoothie to a tall, cool mango gin sling. But it’s just as easy to head out and sample what the bartenders of the Biscayne Corridor are doing with all the fresh mangoes stacking up this summer.
At the Upper Buena Vista Asian bistro Shokudo, general manager Zabdi Cobon is pouring a drink called the Mango Dade. It’s a tropical twist on a classic cocktail made with Bulleit bourbon, mango, and one unusual step: a goat-milk clarification.
“That creates a smooth, velvety texture,” says Cobon. “The result is a re
(Courtesy of Delilah Miami)
Delilah Miami makes a mango-season debut with the elegant Champagne Papi.
freshing, sun-kissed spin on the old fashioned.”
At Brickell’s new, stylish Delilah Miami, beverage manager Jordan DelGiudice is celebrating the exclusive bar’s first mango season with the Champagne Papi. It’s an elegant, colorful drink mixed with Jazz Age flair from lemon juice, mango juice, Suntory Roku Gin, Moët Chandon Brut, peachello, and honey.
Following the jazz spirit across the causeway to The Betsy Hotel’s Piano Bar in Miami Beach, you can take in nightly live jazz performances while sipping on something called Betsy’s Mango Sunshine. Andres the bartender invented this complex cocktail by mixing tequila, lime juice, agave, yellow chartreuse, Benedictine, and muddled mint with a healthy dollop of mango puree.
(Courtesy of The Canvas Bar)
At The Canvas Bar in Edgewater, hang out with an Italian American Smash, made with Campari, Maker’s Mark, mint, and mango.
Getting closer to casual comfort in Edgewater, The Canvas Bar is a hangout with pool tables, foosball, vintage arcade games … and a mango-focused cross-cultural cocktail called the Italian-American Smash.
Bartender Carla Rivera created this cocktail starting with something a little like a boulevardier, with Maker’s Mark bourbon and Campari. But the drink takes a whole other direction with the addition of mango, mint, and lemon juice.
For another kind of recreation, head toward Watson Island, where you can watch the cruise ships heading from PortMiami to the Caribbean and the Med from the indulgent environs of The Deck at Island Gardens. The celebrated brunch spot with a Mediterranean-inflected menu lets mango season bring a bit of island luxury to the bar with a cocktail called From St. Barths with Love, made with Tito’s Vodka, mango, lime, mint, and club soda. What makes this cocktail stand out is the garnish – a half a fresh mango, sliced to make a convenient nibble next to the drink.
For a final stop on this mango mission, try another cross-cultural cocktail at The Amalfi Llama, an Argentinian-Italian steakhouse inside the Esplanade at Aventura.
Trevor Tyler, VP of Beverage Operations, has devised a menu with creative pairings in mind, but for the season, he recommends going off-menu to order the Chili Pineapple Mango Margarita. This sweet, spicy, tangy tipple features pineapple juice, lime juice, mango puree, blanco tequila, and Ancho Reyes chili liqueur, seasoned with chamoy and chili and garnished with dried mango and a chili-powder rim.
However you find your mango this season (and you will, inevitably), whether at the bar or the blender at home … may it reach your glass deliciously.
Grant Balfour is a Miami Beach native, writer, editor, traveler, musician, bon vivant and our official Biscayne Tippler.
