Tales from a Mango Farm and Mango Daiquiri!

A royal of all the cocktails – MANGO DAIQUIRI, everyone's favourite. There is no better way to embrace the best of the Aussie summer than with big juicy ripe mangoes. Serve these straight up, with or without the blender, or freeze up into slushy frozen Mango Daiquiris.

On a scale of 1 to 10, this rates a 12 15: If I am able to reach for a golden ripe Mango in a tree and take a bite and then 10 minutes later I am taking Mango Daiquiris.

HOW COOL IS THAT??😎

Well as probably expected, this did not occur in my own backyard either. This was at the Groves Tropical Fruit Farm in country Queensland at Yeppoon 1 hour from Rockhampton with the aim of embracing Mango Harvesting!!! Current followers might recall my visit last year where I turned up at the Groves farm to bellow howdy before going to the motel to offload my belongings, and was instantly escorted into the house and presented with my room as if I as a part of the family. For the record, I've never actually properly met them before, or even spoken to them (bar an urgent 2 minute 'Hi, excuse me, I'm lost, where do you go to find the farm?" phone call on the way).

Which this year really was like visiting long lost friends! From the time that I got out of my car the very first time I was in the farm everyone in the Groves side welcomed me like a family. Ian – the Mango King, (himself)Boss Man, Sandi –beautiful inside and out, the real Boss of the farm 😉, David –the future king of Mango throne and the biggest attraction at the farmers market, seen ladies over 60 batting their eyelashes. And Mel –A beautiful young lady with lot of experience, best mango grader, juggler, dancer.

Meet the Groves. This is an Australian farming family that anyone would just love to watch. These are some of the nicest people you'll ever want to meet – they are the face of Australian horticulture – hard working, intelligent, funny, friendly, and naturally gorgeous, inside and out.

PS: You might not realize it because of his beard, but Ian may well be smiling in the photo on the top left.

If there was ever a way to truly value the valuables you handle or the products you consume especially the fresh produce, go to a farm. I don't think I can overstate how much it has helped me to change the way I look at things. When with the walking the soil of hard labour listen to how much is invested in the growing of the orchard – the dangers! Can't get over all the things that can go wrong!) all the little and the big things behind picking, storing, grading, cleaning or packing, distributing to markets then making its way into the very supermarkets I buy my groceries from… the mind boggles.

And the sheer scale! Me? I'm using MacBook that has a camera. That's my tiny world. However, everything at the farm is absolutely big – even bigger if you are a shortie like me. Varying sizes of trees, acres of land, hundreds of tonnes of mangoes, mammoth sized crates, enormous piles of trays laden with succulent ripe mangoes….

Did you just see how the mangoes are slightly green and not that luminous yellow /flushing red like you've always seen at the supermarkets? This is because the mangoes are harvested at a specific time of the ripening cycle so that when they are put on the shelves they must be between 72-96 hours old before ripening.

Too soft and they reach the overripe stage before they get to the recipient's place. They have to be the right amount of ripe but if they are not they will never become ripe again. I find the period of time available to harvest the optimum mangoes is extremely limited and I am simply amazed at all the things that can potentially happen. Equipment breakdown in tractors/packing factory/storage facility, RAIN – which is a unique factor because cannot pick mangoes when raining or after because they become too soft ie. unpredictable weather, smooth transport and distribution. To mention the actual growing of the mangoes themselves.

The mangoes which are suitable for fresh selling but cannot be supplied to the stores are transported to the fresh produce markets at Yeppoon which are conducted every Saturday for the farmers. I tried to walk with my rather large camera and waddled down this way and that to watch what was going on; asked the locals and the stalls that were rather taken by what I was doing what I was doing, this taking picture after picture of David.

I might have justified it by telling them that I was taking photos of David because he is a well-known mango producer…… "Well, did you not know?" Yeah, he's really famous! And when she said, "Hi I'm here from Sydney, I am doing a story on him," I said this professionally, but just when I was going to say more which could have made me look like a dork howbeit a hopeless one, I decided to hold my grin in. I wonder how much grief they'll give him at next weeks' markets? 😉

PS I might be totally be bias, but I do declare that the Groves' stall was the busiest and I absolutely swear, never saw so much eye lash batting by the 60+ female age group. I tell myself it had to be the mangoes. Positive!

Of course, I know I'm not a professional film maker by any measure. Only a lady who was baking and cooking herself and who learned how to present the food and how to shoot the food properly to capture the best images and how to record recipes as videos. Although, I did video the entire trip!!! I saw this one over and over, and every time it made me grin like an idiot as I realized it reminded me of the Groves' farm.

All the effort put in to raise the mangoes …..oh! when they get ripe and ready for the market, then they are something to behold. Yummy and juicy, mangoes are rightfully called as the king of fruits. Mangoes are simply summer fruit, and honestly, there is no other fruit that shouts of summer louder than mangoes!

I was seriously, really stumped about what recipe to bring, to share definitely to feature Aussie Mangoes. For instance, I spent a lot of time preparing a sweet Mango Ice Cream that melts into one without an ice cream maker only to drop the idea because the locals I met at the market hailing me a list of all the things I had / was making with mangoes were most excited about the Mango Daiquiris!

And that's it for my Mango Daiquiri;) 1 ripe mango will serve 4. Mangoes are one of the most flavorful fruits out there, if not the most, so you really don't need a lot. You don't even get the feel of the alcohol, which is scary/ yumm!

You may make it straight up as I've done, with or without a blender, or you may make frozen mango daiquiris! I have given directions to all these ones.

Ingredients

• 1 large ripe mango (approx. 1 1/4 cups of mango pulp)
• 90 ml/ 3 oz white rum – I recommend Bacardi.
• 2 tbsp sugar syrup, or to taste (Note 1)
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
• 1 and 1 heaped cup ice cubes or 1 cup crushed ice and extra ice

Sugar Syrup (Note 1)

• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup boiling water

Garnish (optional)

• Strawberries
• Lime slices
• Mint

Instructions

1. Chill glasses in the fridge.

Make With Blender

1. In the blending process it is preferred that Daiquiri ingredients be put in the blender in the following order: liquid first ….. ice last.
2. Whizz until ice is blitzed. Then, control the sour in the soup by adding lime juice and for the sweetness add sugar.
3. Serve – pour this mixture directly into four martini glasses because this recipe yields just the right quantity for them.
4. For added extra you may garnish with strawberries, lime and mint. Serve cold.

Without Blender

1. Mango should be mashed using stick blender as food or chopper.
2. That's why we need to fill up 1 litre / 1 quart or larger jar or bottle. Stir in bacardi, sugar syrup and half a cup of water (Note 3). Refrigerate until chilled. Also, it is necessary to cool the limes and the glasses.
3. For this, you need to chill the ginger and bottle with some lime juice and ice cubes afterward.
4. Shake well than serve it with ice cubes but these should be strained. You may also pour a little bit of ice crushed into the glasses but you will realize that it quickly melts diluting the cocktail.

Recipe Notes:

1. If you don't want to spend the time making the sugar syrup (which I don't always because it is used in many cocktails), skip the ice and add 1 tbsp sugar (or more to taste). Stir, spoon and make sure that sugar has dissolved. THEN add ice to blend (if that did not add ice before, the mix will go too cold without the sugar to dissolve).
2. Variations / adjustments: the taste strength, succulence and sweetness of mango can depend on the type of mangoe and its level of ripeness. But, wait there is a taste test involved so it is really important! When using very sweet and tangy mango, you can even add an extra 30 ml / 1 oz of rum and you won't detect it at all. Taste the sweetness with sugar syrup used and also the sourness with lime.
3. These I prepared with Honey Gold mangoes, which are very tender and sweet with the golden orange colored flesh. It is tastier than other mango varieties, R2E2's, Keith's and Calypos and I could have well have upped the amount of rum in this. I did not require any more of the sugar syrup and most likely, I could have put in a little more of lime juice to balance the sweetness of the mango.
4. This is used to dilute the mango puree to drinkable consistency; it replaces the addition of ice taken to the blender and serves to melt in the spin. If you wanted your cocktail to really be thick though, you could probably omit this. You could also sub with another fruit juice, such as; orange pineapple and so on. To make mango daiquiris, much to my preference, I prefer it simple!
5. I would recommend freezing the mango in order to achieve this form a frozen mango daiquiri. But you still run out of ice for diluting the mango flavor which, I found to be incredibly strong (mangoes are one of the strongest fruits in terms of flavor).
6. If you do not want to use rum you can replace it with lemonade for a non alcoholic version.

Nutrition fact for Mango Daiquiri per serving.