- A Champagne mango, also known as manila, honey, and ataulfo mango.
Shortly after my daughter was born, my parents flew out from Chicago to California to meet her. While wandering through my neighborhood one day, my father excitedly came across a variety of mango that he called “juice mango”. Back in India (where he is from), there are several varieties of mangoes that were considered “juice mangoes”, meaning you could literally drink the pulp of the mango. As kids, my father and his brothers would purchase a juice mango on a hot, sweaty day and go to town, ending up sticky from head to toe and overflowing with fresh mango juice.
This particular variety was sold as a Champagne mango, and of course, my dad just couldn’t resist buying a few to juice at my house. A demonstration was in order!
- Step one–squeeze it, baby!
When purchasing a “juice” mango, you want it firm yet yielding to a slight press, like a ripe avocado. Step number one in drinking a mango: Squeeze it! Using your hands like in the photo above, you want to work the flesh loose from the pit by squeezing the mango in an upward or downward motion, until the mango feels like it is ready to burst with juice.
- Step two: Cut a mouth hole in the bottom of the mango.
The next step is to take a small knife and cut a small mouth hole in the bottom of the mango.
This is what you want your hole to look like:
- The mouth hole to drink a mango
- Step three: suck on the mango while pushing the pulp up towards the hole.
Step three is simple–just grab the mango and start sucking! It helps to push some of the pulp up towards the mouth hole as you suck, sort of like you do with push-up popsicles. And enjoy! Thanks Dad for sharing that bit of Indian food culture with me!
~LTG!
Tags: Ataulfo, champagne, honey, India, juice, mango, manila
